


Galaxy of Hyperion: Mystic Heir

by digitaldreams



Series: Galaxy of Hyperion [2]
Category: No Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Dragons, F/F, F/M, Fantasy, Galaxy of Hyperion, M/M, Magic, we're back baby for the second time
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:55:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 31
Words: 151,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25773952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/digitaldreams/pseuds/digitaldreams
Summary: With the war on Daragon finally over, peace seems to have been restored to the Galaxy of Hyperion. However, this is far from being the case, as the realm of Skylia is slowly starting to fall apart. From the ashes of chaos rises Jay Xanfall, a young woman with countless skeletons in the closet and too many secrets for any one person. She sets out across Skylia with hopes of finding the Skylian Heroes, a faction of Hanilia that has not surfaced in generations, believing that they can help her restore stability to her planet. Meanwhile, Jayler Rose, leader of the Clan Leaders, is raring to return to Daragon. With the disappearance of the Silver Knight, he is left desperate to find his twin sister who he hasn't seen since the war's end. In the middle of restoration, Jayler and the rest of his team are left chasing the illusion of the Silver Knight, unsure as to where it will take them.For salvation to be found, a mystic heir must rise.
Relationships: Original Character(s)/Original Character(s)
Series: Galaxy of Hyperion [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1869790
Kudos: 1





	1. Prologue: Abandoned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the Skylian capital, a palace is abandoned, but for not for much longer...

The palace had been left alone for far too long. 

It was hard for anyone to remember the last time that someone had walked through the halls of the castle that had once been so important. It had fallen too far from grace to have hope of restoration, leaving it a piece of forgotten history in plain view. The castle was easy as could be to spot in the crowded area near Skylia's capital city, but nobody ever dared to go too close to it. 

There weren't any rules against people traveling to the castle, but the unsettling aura it gave off was enough to drive everyone away. The palace had once been used as the headquarters of the Skylox Heroes, after all, and with them gone, it simply felt empty. 

The Skylox Heroes' massacre had taken place following the destruction of the Sapphin tablet, a magical creation used to tether the spirits of long-deceased warriors to the land of the living. Once the item was destroyed, all the halfway-living Skylox Heroes were sent into the afterlife, and the castle was left alone to deteriorate as the elements reclaimed it. Everyone who had once lived in the palace had died, and to some, it seemed as if their spirits still lingered. 

Rumors flew through the nearby town about how the place was haunted somehow. Even the Soul mages, who knew this to be untrue, weren't able to keep fear of the palace from growing. There was only one figure who had ever been seen traveling into the castle's abandoned halls, but it had been months since she had last made an appearance. 

The Silver Knight was once known for sneaking into the castle, frightening many who crossed her path. However, she disappeared shortly after the Clan Leaders made an appearance on Daragon, and none could say quite way. Either way, without her dutiful work to keep the castle in perfect shape, it was starting to fall apart at the seams, a shadow of its former self. To many, there was no hope of restoration. 

The war of Daragon had ended a few weeks prior. The Clan Leaders had retreated back home to Earth, and life was starting to resemble something normal on Daragon. The Fearbringers had been disbanded, and Mersall was long dead, stabbed in the chest and left in the dirt by the Clan Leaders. Zelda had disappeared, leaving with the rest of the traitors of the Fearbringer army to set out on some unknown path. The only Hanilia faction that bothered to chip into the restoration effort on Daragon was the Draconic Superiors, but they could only do so much on their own. 

Those who lived within the Skylian capital could do nothing but look up at the palace, wondering how different things would have been if the Skylox Heroes hadn't been annihilated during their mission to the village of Nadia months prior. The Skylox Heroes were the most powerful army in the Galaxy of Hyperion, and their work certainly would have eased Daragon back into routine much faster. However, it was impossible to bring the dead back to life, and there was no hope of things going back to how they had been. 

Whispers could be heard if one listened closely enough that the Silver Knight was gone as well. She had apparently been seen on Daragon aiding in the war effort, but once the fighting was declared over, she went missing once again. She never returned to the palace that stood as a fragment of a recently lost history, and dust began to form across each layer of the building. Plants had started to coil around the gray towers in an attempt to drag the small space back into the warm embrace of nature. 

There was always a buzz of anticipation in the air if one focused hard enough. The Clan Leaders were meant to be returning sometime soon if the words of Tuila were to be believed. The Draconic Superiors claimed that Daragon would be brought back to stability, and peace would once again cover the Galaxy of Hyperion. Even so, questions were always left unasked regarding the Skylox Heroes and who would replace the greatest faction of soldiers ever known to live. 

Never was there an answer to such a daunting inquiry. The Draconic Superiors couldn't fix everything, and Daragon was their first priority in that moment. Skylia gave the image of stability, but without Lyloc to lead her, the planet was starting to fall apart. Behind the mask of perfection, everything was beginning to crumble. 

Those who were able to observe such a shift dared not to speak up about it. The idea of mentioning how dangerously close to ruin Skylia was frightened all who thought of it. If the concept was never vocalized, it couldn't hurt them. 

Right? 

There was one exception to this, and it came in the form of a shadow that streaked through the dawn-lit streets of the capital city. Her boots clicked against the stones below, but none were around to hear. Most were still asleep, waiting for the sun to fully rise before they started to navigate the streets. It gave the young woman all the peace she could have asked for, and she needed it more than she could ever hope to describe. Speaking with others was an irritation she simply wasn't ready to face when destiny finally appeared to be within her grasp after years of nothing but waiting. 

The castle stood tall and daunting above her, but she didn't let it get in her way. The young woman sucked in a slow breath before walking forwards, pressing her hands against the door. The wood refused to move at first, prompting her to use a small unlocking charm to open the entrance. Afterwards, she was easily able to slip inside, and a sigh escaped her lips. 

The palace had been left abandoned for ages, but that was about to change, and it was all thanks to her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NEW BOOK
> 
> I know we've only got the prologue at the moment, but more is coming tomorrow! Woo!
> 
> -Digital


	2. Chapter One: Xanfall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jay Xanfall explores the former home of the Skylox Heroes as the Clan Leaders settle in back on Earth.

Jay Xanfall allowed the shadows to come in close around her as she shut the door behind her. She stepped fully into the palace, swiping one arm at the air in front of her face to keep the dust from sneaking into her lungs. She cringed at the poor state of the building before creating a small orb of purple energy in one hand. It wasn't the best for illuminating the area, but Mystic magic was all she was willing to use in that moment, so the dull violet would have to do. 

When she summoned the sphere, Jay's full figure was brought into view. Her eyes were brown, somehow sharpened and numb at the same time. Her hair was brown as well, tied into a messy low ponytail that hung down to her waist. A purple marking adorned her right cheek in the pattern of a star. Jay wore a rather simple black top with short sleeves, allowing her muscular arms to be shown off easily. Her forearms bore white fingerless gloves. Jay's leggings were purple, though the bottom segments were obscured by the tall black boots that sprouted up from her feet. A brown belt was wrapped around her waist, and a single sword hung from a sheath at her hip. 

Jay coughed when some dust managed to make its way towards her, a brief curse leaving her lips at the frustration. She shook her head and poured extra energy into her palm before taking a few more steps forward. Her expression was a strange mix of reminiscence and hesitation. 

Still, Jay was careful to keep walking despite any reservations she may have had. She glanced around at the dark halls of the castle, the only light resting on her palm due to the angle of the sun not properly shining golden beams through the dirtied windows. She shook her head once again and started to concentrate further on placing one foot in front of the other. She knew what she was there for, and she was going to find it. 

The premonition had come to her in a dream, and since there wasn't anything else for her to do, Jay decided to listen to it. That was what brought her to the palace in the first place. According to her dream, there was a photo located somewhere within the heart of the castle, and if she could find it, she would have her first hint as to what she was meant to do next. She was willing to accept such with open arms given how aimless her wandering had been for too long leading up to that point. 

Jay didn't flinch when her foot collided with a stray rock sitting on the ground. Rather than examine it properly, she forced herself to continue staring forwards. Once she got distracted, she knew that she wouldn't be able to get herself moving again. If she wanted to figure out what the hell she was meant to be doing with her life, she couldn't afford to explore. Maybe she would have time for that another day. 

Jay wasn't sure what told her to take the right path when a grand staircase went in two separate directions, but she followed her instincts regardless. She was trying not to think too much about why she was there or what could possibly happen within the abandoned halls. For all she knew, someone could have secretly taken up residence in the building, and if that was the case, she was vulnerable to an ambush. Granted, anyone would have struggled to sneak up on someone like Jay, but it was still something to keep in mind. 

She didn't stop walking until she saw the desk waiting at the back of a room at the end of a lengthy hallway. Something inside of her knew what the room was without any direct signage. _Lyloc's room._ The first Skylian Mage and leader of the Hanilia fighters had once been within the room. Even if she had been gone for months, her magical presence still seemed to linger in the air, making the room feel somewhat alive. The purple orb on Jay's hand seemed to grow stronger, and she watched the energy crackle carefully before moving towards the desk. 

Her fingers curled under the handle of a drawer on the desk before she pulled it out. Immediately, she took to swiping at the air once again, doing whatever she could to keep from getting dust in her eyes. Jay wished that someone would have thought to keep the castle in good shape during the Daragon war. Just because people wanted to ignore this fragment of history didn't mean that it was completely obsolete. 

Jay managed to banish all such thoughts as soon as her gaze fell upon what she had come for. There was a square frame within the drawer just as her dream had told her. She blew on the frame from as far away as possible, closing her eyes against the thick layer of dust that was released into the air. She already felt dirty, and she couldn't wait to get out of the castle and scrub herself clean. She vaguely wondered if she would ever be able to escape the endless particles that seemed to live in the atmosphere there. 

Any complaints Jay may have had melted away as soon as she saw the picture in question. She lifted it from where it rested, and a frown appeared on her face. She held the purple orb up to the surface of the glass in an attempt to get a better look at it. A moment later, sunshine began to stream in through the window above the desk. At first, the light nearly blinded Jay, causing her to hiss in pain, but she grew used to it quickly. Jay allowed her purple sphere to die out, and she took in a deep breath before properly examining the contents of the picture. Her heart pounded furiously in her chest. 

The picture was familiar to most in a way. Many of the figures were well-known across all of Hyperion. After all, of the ten figures found within the photo, ten of them were the original Hanilia fighters. Before the war against Loki and his Lakinya soldiers, the ten original Hanilia gained quite a reputation thanks to being selected by Hyperion herself. All ten of them were smiling brightly. In particular, Jay's eyes lingered on Lyloc, who was standing at the center of the madness. It only made sense; Lyloc had been the leader of the Hanilia both before and during the war. She was the only one who could keep the varying personalities under control. 

The only person Jay didn't recognize was standing directly to the right of Lyloc, and the Hanilia leader had an arm slung around her shoulders. The girl had tanned skin and bright green eyes that shone like emeralds in morning light. Her hair was a light brown color and tied into a single ponytail at the top right segment of her head. Her clothing was difficult to make out due to the many people obscuring the rest of her body, but she appeared to be having the time of her life. 

Jay's fingers ran against the back edge of the frame mindlessly as she stared, and she gasped when her pinky pushed up what felt like a layer of paper. She turned over the frame and realized that there was certainly a page taped to the backside of the frame. Jay took in a deep breath before pulling the paper loose. It was folded in half, so she set the frame down in the drawer once again before pulling it open fully. 

"'Lana Tarulum,'" Jay read softly. "'Skylian Mage.'"

Her dream had spoken of the Skylian Mages, albeit not in much detail. Whoever was communicating with her seemed convinced that the Skylian Mages would bring salvation to the planet of Skylia, something that didn't seem too surprising given the name of the group. Still, not much was known about them, and she didn't have the slightest clue as to why she was the one brought to the picture. 

Of all the Hanilia factions, the Skylian Mages were the most mysterious. There wasn't much information about them despite their first member, Lyloc herself, having lived the longest. She was rather secretive when it came to the Skylian Mages, to say the least. In most cases, it was easy to pick out a pattern for how the reincarnation cycles worked. For some, it was a matter of genetics. In other situations, when a member died, another was born to replace them. The Skylian Mages were a mystery on that front, their truth a secret that Lyloc had held to her chest until the day she left behind the land of the living. 

Lana Tarulum's name was certainly not a familiar one to Jay. Certainly a Skylian Mage would have stirred up a few rumors along the way, but Jay had never heard of her. It brought a frown to Jay's face, and she couldn't help but wonder what would make Lana disappear from history seemingly out of nowhere. 

Her inclusion in the photo implied that she was alive at the same time as Lyloc, but that couldn't be the case. Other Hanilia didn't start appearing until after the Hypo-Lokan War ended. They didn't properly show up until Loki was sealed away and his soldiers were defeated. It wasn't possible for Lana to have existed at the same time as the rest of the original Hanilia, so what did all of this mean? 

Still, Jay couldn't help her curiosity on the matter. She frowned to herself, folding the paper over on itself once again. A name was something, and if her dream was anything to go by, it was the first hint to figuring out more about the Skylian Mages. There was no way that this Lana character was still alive if she had truly lived at the same time as the original Hanilia. 

Then again, Lyloc had her own way of staying alive for that long, so anything was possible. In fact, Lyloc had been alive up until a few short months prior. Lyloc would have been alive in that moment if not for Zelda's interference during the Battle of Nadia. 

Jay pushed the bitterness out of her mind and shook her head. She reattached the folded paper to the back of the frame once she had picked up the wooden creation once again. She examined the picture carefully, brushing her fingertips across the glass gently. There had to be something there that would help her, but what? Was Lana's name all that she had to go off? If so, she had better start searching. 

Jay turned on her heel to leave the room, shoving her hand down as she walked through the open door. Her purple energy sphere reformed itself in her right palm as she tucked the frame under her arm, supporting it with the fingers of her left hand. She did her best not to think about the place she was in as she walked through the halls of the castle. There would be time for thinking when she got back to her hotel room within the nearby town. Until then, it was best not to get distracted. She couldn't afford to allow her thoughts to get the best of her for reasons too numerous to count. 

The sun was much higher in the sky than Jay had expected it to be when she stepped out of the castle. The immediate onslaught of light was enough to make her cringe and she held up her right hand to block her face after making her purple orb disappear. A breath caught in her lungs as she realized that the town was coming into its daily activities once again. Jay held up her arm above her head, snapping her fingers before she disappeared from view. The last thing she wanted was for someone to see her and ask what she had been doing in the castle. 

Granted, it wasn't as if anyone would truly approach her on the matter. Skylian people were too carefree as far as she was aware, though the hypocrisy was not lost on her; she had grown up there all her life, but the statement still stood. Everyone who lived in the capital seemed perfectly content to ignore the castle where the Skylox Heroes had once worked, and nobody bothered to give the place a second glance. If they ignored the loss of their only form of defense, perhaps the issue would go away. There was no group to keep them safe from any potential violence, but they preferred to shove such a problem out of their minds rather than face it. 

Typical Skylians. 

Jay got all the way back to her room within the local inn before she dispelled her invisibility spell. She sat down on her bed, and while the rigid mattress usually bothered her, she didn't give it a scornful glance as she otherwise would have. All her attention was on the picture that rested in her left hand. 

Jay raised the frame once again and stared at it carefully. Her dream had made it seem as if Lana's name was her only clue. After all, the person who had communicated with her said that she was meant to be finding the hint on a picture frame, and she had. It was frustrating how little there was to go off, but she wasn't going to push her luck in an attempt to find out more. 

Many others in Jay's situation would have been curious about who in the world could have been reaching out to her, but she couldn't care less. It gave her something to do, and it blocked out the unpleasant subjects that she was all too eager to ignore. She was fine to have the distraction regardless of how many questions it raised. It was better that than be left alone with her thoughts. Her brain was always in a state of turbulence as far as she could tell, and even mindless busywork was something for her to focus on. 

Jay lost track of time the longer that she stared down at the picture. She was going to have to head out to start searching for answers regarding who Lana was sooner or later, but in that moment, she couldn't tear her gaze away from the photo. It was cruel and seemed to mock her, but it captured her attention in a way that few other objects could, and it didn't seem to want to let go once it caught her gaze. 

The picture was a reminder of everything Jay had once been comfortable with. It was a way of showing her that she had lost everything despite how unrelated it seemed to her past experiences. The photo was mocking whether it wanted to or not, but she still couldn't look away. 

Maybe she liked the reminder more than she was letting on. 

~~~~~

In the latest day in a long line, Jayler Rose was left waiting. 

He walked into Navy Fountain High School while grasping firmly at the straps of his backpack, watching as each foot went in front of the other in an endless pattern. Regularly, he would be excited that Friday had finally arrived, but he couldn't bring himself to think of such when there were far more important things on his mind. 

About three weeks had passed since he and the rest of the Clan Leaders had come back to Earth from Daragon, and Jayler was starting to get antsy. Tuila and the rest of the Draconic Superiors were supposed to be reaching out to speak with the team about when they would be returning, but nothing had happened. 

On one hand, Jayler was thankful to be back on Earth where there wasn't a constant threat to his life. Everyone else found him to be just a normal kid, so he didn't need to run from the rest of the world as he had been forced to before. He could finally indulge in regular pleasures once again...

But on the other hand, was it really so wrong for him to want another taste of adventure? The war had truly sucked a lot out of him, and he wanted the chance to experience magic without the consistent risk. Jayler didn't think he was being selfish to long for such, and it left him desperate and impatient for when the Draconic Superiors would return. 

Jayler walked to his first class mindlessly, his leg bouncing once he was in his seat. He wanted to cast a small fire spell, just to see the way the flames danced within his palm, but he knew that wasn't a good idea with so many people around. He had managed to avoid suspicion up to that point, but who could say how long that would last once anybody saw him playing with fire so nonchalantly? 

In a way, it was almost surprising how easily things had gone right back to the way they were before. The Clan Leaders were shoved right back into life, and nobody seemed to realize they were gone at all. There had likely been records regarding six missing teenagers at some point, but everything on that subject was wiped clean with the return of the Clan Leaders to Earth. It had been part of the promise to the group from the Draconic Superiors, and Jayler could see clearly that they did not disappoint. 

Jayler and the rest of the group had missed a handful of school days while in Hyperion, but that didn't seem to matter much. A majority of their classes were just getting started, and Jayler found it oddly easy to slip right back into the routine everyone else enjoyed even with his absence from the start of the new semester. Life was clicking right back into place, and it was as if nothing had happened. 

Jayler was both satisfied and disappointed with such an outcome. Hyperion was part of him, and he wanted to see it again more than he could hope to describe. Impatience was starting to settle in all too quickly, and all Jayler could do was wait while biting his lip to keep from mumbling about how much he missed magic. 

He hadn't been forced to go so long without transforming since first reaching the Syllix level while on Daragon, and that was certainly starting to get to him among other things. Of course, transforming on Earth was impossible for him due to the censor that the planet had on magic. Only the strongest of mages would be able to shift into their other forms, and Jayler simply wasn't at that threshold yet. It only made him more desperate and antsy for his eventual return to Hyperion. 

"Hey, Jayler. How are you doing?" 

Jayler looked up to see Xia standing over his desk. It wasn't uncommon for Xia to pop in before classes started for the day given that her first period was right down the hall. Even so, she managed to surprise Jayler when he was having an off day, and that certainly described how he was doing that Friday morning. 

"I'm fine, I guess," Jayler shrugged. "Can't stop thinking." He didn't define his thoughts since he knew that Xia was smart enough to pick up on them anyways. She had become rather good at reading the rest of the group over their limited time together, and Jayler had to admit that he was impressed. 

Xia leaned over, pressing one palm into the surface of the desk. "Yeah. I get that," she remarked softly. A few strands of her auburn hair fell to her cheek from the messy bun it was tied in. "I'm starting to get impatient too. You would expect a group like that to know how to work faster, but I guess that's just a bit too much to hope for."

Jayler let out a humorless chuckle at her comment before nodding. "You're right there... All we can really do is wait though," he murmured. "We can talk more about it with the rest of the group at lunch. I don't even think Gemini will be able to pretend that she's not bothered at this point."

Xia snorted in response. She opened her mouth to offer a reply, but she was cut off when the minute warning bell rang out. "Crap. Gotta go. See you later, Jay," she told him, walking towards the door quickly. She disappeared around the corner, and Jayler watched her go carefully. 

Once she was gone, Jayler let out a sigh. He didn't know how much longer he could wait for an update on how Daragon was doing. It was always the same subject on his mind, and his impatience was starting to settle into his bones rather uncomfortably. Talking about it with the rest of the team at lunch did something to ease his nerves, but he still couldn't help his curiosity. None of them were doing any better than he was, but it was still something to be able to hear about how they were feeling on the matter. It was a temporary distraction from his own relentless feelings. 

Jayler didn't realize that class had started until the door clicked shut and the teacher walked in. He snapped to attention, all thoughts of magic slipping into the back of his brain. He leaned over to the side, starting to dig around through his things before pulling out a notebook and his history textbook. Once both items were positioned on the desk, he looked back up to the front of the room and saw a picture of a fire on the screen. 

Immediately, Jayler cringed, and his fingers shifted restlessly on top of the pages of his history book. Of all the things that would remind him how far he was from Hyperion, that once certainly hit hardest. He bit his lip to keep from letting out a sigh before attempting to regain the sense of focus that had existed within him for that brief handful of seconds. His hands clenched into fists, and he concentrated on the way his nails dug into his palms to banish any reminders of magic. His attempts didn't work as well as he had hoped, and he frowned deeply. 

Jayler could already tell that this was going to be a long day. 

~~~~~

Lex felt oddly spaced out when she walked into her speech class for the day. The rest of the competitive acting team was already inside for another daily lesson, and she let out a breath she hadn't realized that she had been holding once she stepped into the room. Lunch was next period, and her mind was already racing with thoughts of magic. According to Xia's brief message to the Clan Leader group chat, Jayler wasn't doing any better than she was. She indulged in a small sigh of relief at the knowledge. It seemed their subject of discussion had already been decided. 

Then again, it was the same as every other day, so what was there really to decide on? 

Lex's gaze danced around the room before her eyes fell on Caitra, another one of her classmates. She couldn't help but frown to herself, though it was impossible for even Lex to say why that was. Before going to the Galaxy of Hyperion, Lex had been rather close with Caitra despite their difference in ages of one year. Now that she was back though, Lex couldn't help but feel something strange existed regarding the other girl. Still, that didn't stop Lex from shelving her sudden discomfort and walking over to her friend. 

"Hey, Caitra!" Lex declared boldly, plastering her typical grin across her features. "What are you up to?" The question might as well have been rhetorical as far as Lex was concerned; it was clear by the book in Caitra's lap that she was reading. Still, it was something to get a conversation started, and that was more than enough for the Clan Leader. 

Caitra looked up at Lex with a smile before pushing her book shut. "Nothing much," she replied. She set the volume off to her side before letting her hands fall limply to her lap. "What's going on with you? I get the feeling you're rather energetic today."

That was Caitra alright, always reading Lex just a bit too well. Lex couldn't help but wonder if she had Passion magic, but she knew such was a long shot at best. After all, the Clan Leaders were likely the only mages located within the halls of Navy Fountain, and predicting that there were any other magic-users could easily turn sour if she was wrong. On top of that, even if there were mages, what were the chances that Caitra would be one of them? What were the chances from there that Caitra would have that specific type of magic? It was all in jest, a joke that Lex wouldn't ever be allowed to share. 

Still, she didn't say any of this, instead shrugging at Caitra's perceptive comment. "I guess you could say that," she replied. "I'm really excited for school to get out this afternoon, that's all. I mean, it's Friday, so I'm really looking forward to not having to wake up stupid early for a few days. It's good to have a break and all that."

Caitra raised an eyebrow in Lex's direction before shaking her head, a good-natured smile spreading across her lips. "I feel like it's something a bit more than that, but okay," she told Lex simply. 

_Yeah, it is. I want to go back to an alternate dimension where everyone has magical abilities. I've been here on Earth for way too long, and I swear that I'm going to lose it when Tuila does finally decide to get into contact with us._

Lex ignored the thoughts that threatened to spill forth from her lips and instead sat down next to Caitra, stretching her arms above her head. "It doesn't matter all that much. I'm planning on hanging out with a few friends this weekend, so I'm a bit hyped up," she explained. It was a seamless lie, but who could say if it was entirely dishonest? After all, the Clan Leaders were the masters of improvised get-togethers. Even just three weeks in Navy Fountain again had established that firmly. 

A devilish smirk spread across Caitra's face, and she leaned over to Lex gently, nudging the other girl with her elbow. "Aw... Are you going to get to see Ocean again?" Caitra teased. "We all know how you feel about her."

Lex's jaw dropped before she had the chance to stop it, and her cheeks went furiously pink. She looked away from Caitra, feeling a pouty expression start to seep in. That was yet another downside to Caitra knowing her so well: it was too easy for the other girl to tease her about things. 

It wasn't as if Caitra was entirely wrong; she wasn't, as a matter of fact. Lex would be lying if she said that she didn't have eyes for Ocean, and going to the Galaxy of Hyperion had only strengthened that bond. Once upon a time, Lex thought that she would only be able to admire Ocean from afar when the two crossed paths in the hallway, but after they were both revealed to be Clan Leaders, Lex's feelings only grew, and they seemed to be out of control all of a sudden. 

Caitra let out a snicker when she noticed Lex's silence. "I called it!" she hollered triumphantly. If the room had been any quieter, others would have certainly looked over at what had just taken place. Lex relished in the noise of the room covering up Caitra's bold proclamations. 

"You can't tell anybody about this though. We've been over this," Lex reminded Caitra, her gaze hardening ever so slightly. "I would much rather wait for Ocean to get closer to me first."

"You two did get pretty close over winter break though," Caitra pointed out. "You barely spoke before we went home for break, but you're together all the time at lunch these days. I would say that you're certainly getting closer to her."

Lex opened her mouth to formulate a response, but she found that the words simply wouldn't come together. She shook her head with a sigh. "Alright, fine. It's just none of my business right now, and there are more important things to focus on. I'm a sophomore in high school, after all. I need to think about homework, my future, and learning how to drive," she said pointedly. 

Caitra let out a brief laugh. "You? Drive?" she questioned. "You're too much of a gay disaster to learn how to drive, and we both know it. I can say that conclusively since I'm in the same boat as you."

Lex's embarrassment subsided as she nudged at Caitra's side with her own elbow. It didn't take long for the two girls to explode into giggles once again, and Lex couldn't help but smile to herself. She was being ridiculous. Nothing was wrong with Caitra. She was still the same girl that Lex always knew. Maybe she was just being paranoid after all that had happened in Hyperion. 

Class started soon afterwards, and Lex found herself spending a bit too long trying to convince herself that Caitra was just another normal girl. There was nothing strange about the younger girl. She was just being ridiculous in assuming that something else was going on with Caitra. There wasn't any extra magical business going on, and Lex was just overthinking things. If she looked at it logically, everything was obviously a figment of her imagination. She took comfort in the thought, but part of her couldn't help but wonder if she was right somehow. 

Either way, there was no way to tell for sure, so she did her best to shove it out of her mind. Even so, the idea lingered for far longer than Lex would have liked, and her stomach twisted for the rest of the period. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New book! Woo! 
> 
> -Digital


	3. Chapter Two: Rumors of Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Clan Leaders discuss how to get back to Hyperion as Jay's search is interrupted.

Jayler was the last one to slip into his seat at the lunch table the Clan Leaders had come to frequent over the course of the past few weeks. The other five were already there waiting for him. Ocean was reading a book quietly while Luke took a large drink from his water bottle. Lex was tapping her fingers mindlessly against the table's surface while Gemini and Xia focused on eating. All of these activities came to a halt as soon as Jayler made his appearance. 

"I want to go back," Jayler said first and foremost, his voice rather blunt. 

"We all know," Gemini told him with a small, satisfied smile. "You're not the only one looking forward to heading back to the Galaxy of Hyperion. A few weeks have passed, and I'm willing to imagine that things are starting to calm down back there now."

"Still, there has to be a reason that Tuila hadn't called us all back yet," Ocean pointed out. "I mean, she's a pretty logical person... Dragon person, but you know what I mean. She wouldn't drag us back if it wasn't the right time."

"I just hope that whatever is taking her so long doesn't turn out to be our problem," Xia muttered, taking another bite of her sandwich. "I've had enough of fighting for a while, and if we're going to be forced into yet another battle, I want all the resting time that I can get."

Lex let out a laugh at Xia's words. "You do have a point there... We won't know about what we're supposed to be doing next until after she reaches out to us though, so all we can do is keep being patient. I know that it's really starting to bother us all being on Earth for so long, but we're just going to have to deal with it," she declared. 

"I hate it when you're right," Luke murmured, shaking his head. "I know that there's nothing we can do realistically to make all of this speed up, but... I'm still getting all antsy. I know it's weird to miss the days of the war, but... I don't know how to describe it."

"You don't miss the war itself. You miss being able to use your powers freely," Lex concluded. 

Luke nodded. "You got it, yeah... I don't know. Holding back for so long is just making me feel so... Empty. The primary element I utilized while we were back in the Galaxy of Hyperion was Blade, and... It's not like I can just summon a little sword to calm myself when I get freaked out that it was all some kind of dream," he explained quickly. 

"I can't stop doing it, you know," Jayler piped in. "When I'm alone at night, I just... I keep doing it. One second, I'm trying to fall asleep, but the next, I'm trying to summon another small flame. Looking at it calms me down. It's not something I ever would have expected, but... When I use my magic, I have to focus completely on the fire I'm making so that it doesn't flicker out. The censor on magic around here is no joke."

"You're certainly right there," Gemini sighed with a shake of her head. "I'm missing Daragon just as much as the rest of you are. The entire time we were there, the natural magic of the planet was fueling me, and back here... I'm just realizing how polluted Earth is in comparison. I want to go back there, even if it's just for a little while, to breathe in some of that fresh air again."

"Hopefully, we'll be able to go there for a little bit longer than a short while," Ocean grinned, though it was clear she wasn't entirely convinced of the reality behind her words. "I want to see how everyone is doing... Oddly enough, I even find myself missing the princess."

Xia let out a harsh bark of a laugh. "Yeah, that is weird. Last I remember, she was one of the most unpleasant people I've ever interacted with. I would be perfectly content to never see her again. No amount of desperation would ever push me that far," she commented. 

"Still, I can't exactly blame Ocean for feeling that way. We're all getting antsy and excited for when we'll get the chance to go back, and it's about time that Tuila reaches out to us," Lex said firmly, a frown knit tightly on her features. "I swear, if I had any way of contacting her, I would have done it already. It's the least we deserve after all that's happened."

"We'll get back there soon enough. For now, maybe we should enjoy the peace we have. I'm just as eager as the rest of you, but I know that wishing away our time of relaxation is not a wise choice," Gemini pointed out, her advice perfect just as it always was. 

"There's one thing in particular that I really want to do when we get back there..." Jayler whispered under his breath. He looked up to the ceiling, almost as if he thought that the overhead segment of the building would be able to help him through this grave issue. 

"The Silver Knight," Ocean murmured, knowing exactly what Jayler was going to say before he even had the chance to elaborate. "You haven't seen her since before the war ended, right?"

"I saw her once after we finished the fighting," Jayler corrected her. "But she said that we would get the chance to see each other again in the future. I'm hoping that's the case, anyways, but I don't even know where to start as far as looking for her. She's not going to be wearing the same armor as before."

"You're going to have to track her down without any ideas as to what she looks like... Yeah, I do not envy you right now," Xia commented with a small chuckle, though it was clearly made specifically to break up some of the tension in the air. 

"We're going to find a way to reunite with her. We owe a lot to her, and... I guess I'm just as curious as you are," Luke said, an awkward smile appearing on his features. 

"We're not going to be able to find her until we get back there though. She could be anywhere in the Galaxy of Hyperion. Who can say if she lingered on Daragon for longer than she needed to? That doesn't seem to be in her nature," Gemini remarked. 

"Then we'll just have to search the entire galaxy," Lex announced. "Even if she's not technically one of us, the Silver Knight should be part of our team. That's enough to get me interested in her. If she's Jayler's twin like she's been saying, then that means that she could have been a Clan Leader in another timeline. That certainly has me intrigued."

"Wow, Lex is bringing up the multiverse concept... I don't think I ever want to imagine that sort of thing ever again," Xia joked with a playful roll of her eyes. She received a small glare from Lex, but she snickered and shrugged it off. 

"We all want to see her soon," Ocean concluded. "But we won't be able to start our search for a while... I really hope that Tuila reaches out to us soon."

Jayler sighed, unsure if he wanted to stay on the subject of Hyperion any longer than they already had. On one hand, he wanted to strategize for what they were going to do after going back, but on the other, talking about it only made him long for what he no longer had more than ever before. He distracted himself by peeling his banana and shoving the end of it in his mouth before taking a bite. 

Before anyone could say something else on the matter, the shrill click of shoes burst unceremoniously into Jayler's ears. He didn't even have to turn around to know that Allison Camden was standing directly behind him. He glared at his lunch tray, praying that it would be enough to make her go away. 

Allison and Xia had been friends once upon a time, but that had all fallen apart during the trip to Hyperion. Allison had insisted on spreading lies regarding Luke, but as soon as Xia learned the truth, she decided to ditch her former companion in favor of hanging out with the Clan Leaders. To put it simply, Allison was not taking it well, and she tended to stop by the lunch table at least once every few days to sneer disapprovingly at the new group that Xia had taken to associating with. 

"Please leave," Lex grumbled sourly, not even looking up from her food as Allison approached. "We've told you before that we don't want you here."

"Oh, shut it," Allison told Lex with a dramatic roll of her eyes. "Xia, I really don't understand what you could possibly gain by associating with people like this. I thought you were better than this."

Xia huffed angrily, slamming her hands against the table before rising to her feet, shooting a glare at Allison fiercely. "I really don't understand what you could possibly gain by asking me this same damn question every single time we see each other. I thought you were better than this." Her words were dripping with venom, and Jayler had to hold back a cringe at her tone. He had gotten used to the kinder side of Xia, making it easy to forget how bitter she could be when provoked. It was a jarring shift, and he didn't particularly enjoy seeing her change whenever Allison showed her face. 

Allison sighed in Xia's direction before shaking her head. "You truly do disappoint me... Betraying me to hang out with the enemy? Gross," she scoffed. She turned on her heel and started to walk away. The sound of her shoes growing fainter made Jayler sigh in relief. 

Xia didn't sit back down until well after Allison was gone, and even after her former friend had disappeared, Xia's shoulders remained tight with tension. "Hate this," Xia grumbled, but Jayler could tell she was holding back on more than a few colorful terms. Before she could say anything she could regret, Xia pushed the final part of her sandwich into her mouth. The glare she had shared with Allison didn't seem ready to leave her eyes, and Jayler took to looking away from her to keep from shuddering under her rage. 

"I think we should find a new place to eat lunch," Gemini suggested, continuing the conversation with practiced grace. "We could get away from Allison and anyone she might send to pester Xia. That sounds like a dream, to be perfectly honest."

Luke opened his mouth to respond, pushing his glasses further up on his nose as he did so, but he was cut off by a small flash of light appearing in the air above the center of the table. Jayler gasped and looked around, making sure that nobody else had noticed. None of the other students in the cafeteria had sent the group even a second glance, so he figured that it was safe. Jayler returned his gaze to the light, his eyes wide as saucers. 

The glow slowly began to fall down towards the table. When the light faded, Jayler realized that a piece of paper was folded into a neat square at the center of the wood. He looked to the rest of the group, seeing that they were all examining their teammates for further confirmation that this was real. There was only one way that something of that nature could happen, and it was the same explanation for why nobody else had been able to see the sudden shower of radiant illumination. 

Magic. 

All six of the Clan Leaders seemed ready to reach out and grab it, but none of them did. Their meals were forgotten in favor of staring at the square in solemn silence, a stark contrast to the buzz of activity that hovered in the rest of the cafeteria. Jayler looked to the rest of his group before stretching out his hand and taking firm hold of the square. He pulled it closer to himself, a smile breaking out on his features immediately. 

The paper felt like it was alive, and when Jayler focused hard enough, he could have sworn that he felt it vibrating beneath his grasp. If the light show hadn't been proof that this was magic, the sensation of the page upon his skin was further evidence. He curled his finger across the edge of the paper and started to unfold it. In the corner of his eye, he saw the rest of the group lean closer to him in anticipation. 

Jayler didn't realize how many times the page had been folded until he had started working at unfurling it. With each motion, the group seemed to grow more excited, and Jayler could hardly contain the grin on his features by the time the page was fully revealed. 

At first, Jayler thought it was blank, and his undying grin faltered for a moment, However, he soon realized that this was not true in the slightest. Words began to appear on the page before his very eyes, and his jaw dropped in surprise. This was enough to persuade the rest of the group to gather around him, all staring at the page from somewhere over his shoulders. He didn't mind the pressure of Xia and Lex's chins against his hoodie, too infatuated with the page to care. 

_It is time._

Jayler didn't know how he was aware of such, but he recognized the handwriting as belonging to Tuila. He looked to the rest of the group, unable to stop from smiling. At long last, they were going to be able to return to Hyperion. Of course, it wasn't possible in that moment since the group was still in school, but as soon as classes ended for the day, they would finally be able to go back to Daragon and the rest of the Galaxy of Hyperion. 

The bell rang in the back of Jayler's mind, a signal for the next period to start, but he barely registered it. Instead, he continued looking down at the paper, not moving until one of the teachers monitoring the cafeteria shooed the group into separate directions. He carefully folded the page once again, following each crease perfectly, before shoving it haphazardly into his pocket. 

Even if they didn't get the chance to discuss it, each of the Clan Leaders knew what the rest of the party was thinking. Jayler knew it was only a matter of time before his phone started buzzing constantly with notifications from the group's texting chat to discuss the matter. When the vibrations did start, he grinned down at the device, feeling giddy off his own anticipation. 

At long last, the time had come for them to return, and he hadn't been this excited in a long time. 

~~~~~

The library didn't open for another few hours, so Jay had more than enough time to spend alone in her hotel room. She wasn't able to do much, too jittery and focused on the picture to bother putting attention to anything else. She cleaned her sword before placing it back in its sheath before going right back to staring at the picture. She didn't know if anyone would have any information about this Lana character, but the least she could do was try to search for more about her. 

As the hours passed by, she decided to head towards the library. She could at least be there when the doors opened to start doing her research. Jay let out a sigh as she walked out of the hotel, picture still grasped tightly in her hand. She was so focused on reaching her destination that she didn't realize she had a visitor until it was a bit too late. 

The young man was just a bit shorter than her and had a rather bright smile. His hair was blonde and tied into a messy ponytail at the base of his neck. His eyes shone purple, and he wore a jacket of the same color over a black shirt. His trousers were gray with white stripes going down either side on the outside of his legs. He wore black boots to finish off the look. 

Jay looked at him for a moment before frowning. "Who are you?" she questioned. Her free hand was already starting to drift towards her sword out of instinct. It had been far too long since she had a casual conversation with another person. No wonder she was so antsy. 

"Just a curious wandering traveler," the boy replied with a shrug. His smile never slipped, and Jay could see a few dimples on his face. 

She tilted her head towards him, doubt glazing over her eyes. She didn't say anything, but she was positive that he got the message regardless. 

"No need to glare at me," the boy told her, throwing up his hands in defense as he took a step back. "I'm really not here to hurt you. I'm just wondering if we could talk a little bit."

"Why do you want to talk to me?" Jay demanded, her tone biting and sharp. She surprised herself with how angry and deadpan she sounded. Hyperion above, she really did need to get better at talking to people. 

"I want to get to know you better. I've seen you wandering around this area for a few days, and I want to know what's going on in that head of yours. You seem to be up to some pretty serious business," the boy explained. "Plus, I saw you sneaking into the old castle. You've really caught my attention now, and I want to hear what you've found out."

Jay sighed and shook her head. "Sorry, I don't have time to stop for conversation like this. I have really important business to attend to at the moment, and I would like to take care of it before indulging in this sort of conversation," she told him, starting to walk away. "You haven't even told me your name, so why would I bother trusting you?"

"Arian Quisti," the boy suddenly said. "That's my name, I mean. I want to know more about what you found out. Why did you sneak into the castle?"

"I don't think I need to tell you anything. We don't know each other. Besides, how can you be so sure that I'm the person you saw? There are tons of people who look similar to me around here," Jay pointed out, continuing to walk through the city's streets, leaving Arian to stumble after her in an attempt to catch up. 

"I'm positive that it was you," Arian told her firmly. "I mean, that tattoo on your cheek is pretty distinctive. I used a spell to see more details about you from afar, and that tattoo stuck out like a sore thumb."

Jay stopped walking before turning over her shoulder to face him. "I'm still not convinced. Just leave me alone so that I can continue taking care of my own business. It doesn't involve you, and that fact is not going to be changing anytime soon. Please, leave me to live my own life without any outside influences. I know what I'm doing. Good day," she said bluntly. As soon as the words left her mouth, she was walking away again, leaving Arian dumbfounded. 

"I'm just trying to help," Arian sighed in exasperation. "I just thought I knew why you were sneaking into the castle. Can you at least indulge me in this much?"

Jay didn't halt her escape. She didn't say anything to Arian either, instead looking down at the picture in her hand once again. 

"I got a vision from Lyloc telling me to go there," Arian declared firmly. 

This was enough to make Jay stop walking. 

"Yeah. She wanted me to go in and try to find the Skylox Heroes. I don't know what that sort of thing means, but I wanted to try and follow her directions," Arian explained. "I never met Lyloc while she was still around, so I don't know why she would want to reach out to me, but... Still, I wanted to listen to what she had to say."

Jay turned to face Arian slowly, her glare slowly lessening. "Do you have any evidence that what you say is true?" she questioned. As far as she was aware, Arian could have just as easily used a spell to read her mind. The best of Mind mages were able to slip in and out of a target's psyche without leaving behind any traces, and Arian hadn't shown any signs of what his magic was up to that point. 

Arian nodded firmly. "I'm not a Mind mage," he told her, almost as if he was reading her thoughts. "I've got Mystic magic. I know that you're worried about me reading your mind to say all of that stuff. It's pretty easy to see on your face, and... I don't have Mind magic. I'm not doing anything like that."

Jay frowned, examining him carefully. He could have easily been lying, but she couldn't help but wonder if he was being honest. Her shoulders were tense, and she knew that her back was going to start aching if she didn't at least make an attempt to calm down soon. 

"I want details," Jay demanded. "What did you see in this dream of yours? Don't hold back on anything. No matter how small the facts, I want to hear all about them. Do you understand me?"

Arian nodded. "Of course," he told her, determination appearing on his face. His hands clenched into fists, and he gestured for Jay to follow him into the alleyway between nearby buildings. She hesitated at first, realizing how little space there was to move around, but if Arian tried anything, she would be able to ready her sword and attack before he registered what was happening. In the end, Jay followed him into the space, a frown still etched on her features. 

"What are you waiting for?" Jay questioned, her voice far harsher than she had intended. She gestured for him to start talking, and at her prompting, he did. She was lost in Arian's words quickly, and her frown only grew deeper the more he spoke. 

~~~~~

Colt Curre was not in the mood to deal with anybody's crap that morning. 

He had been slinking around Skylia's various cities for ages, but he hadn't ever quite caught sight of his target. The magical signature he was picking up was stronger than anything he had seen in many years, and it made him frown deeply. He crossed his arms as he found a place in between a pair of buildings, closing his eyes as he leaned against the wall. This wasn't going well, and he didn't know what he was going to do if anyone happened to find him taking a break. He was too tired of the universe spitting on him to press on in that moment. 

As Colt took a deep breath to recenter himself, he reached up to grab a pair of goggles from the top of his head. The lenses had been cracked many years ago, but he never bothered to fix them. They still functioned perfectly fine even with the cracks in the glass, and he saw no point in repairing something that was barely even broken. He pressed the goggles to his face and began to look around. 

There were countless lines of energy buzzing in the air nearby, but none of them seemed to fit the target that he was trying to track down. He had been searching for far too long, but the person that he had been tracing always managed to elude him. Colt didn't even know what they looked like, just that the higher-ups at his job really wanted him to figure out where they were and what they were doing. 

If Colt didn't have an obligation to stay, he would have left ages ago. The work was easy for him to do, yes, but it was unsatisfactory and didn't truly fulfill his potential the way he would have liked. He pressed on regardless of how bitter he got over this truth though, knowing that complaining was pointless at the end of the day. He wasn't going to be getting out unless a miracle popped up, and he hadn't seen anything that glorious happen in his countless years of working for that damned company. 

Colt took a few more heavy breaths before forcing himself away from the wall. He really wasn't in the mood to be scolded for taking too long of a break, and he had likely already wasted more than enough time. His lips set into a frown as he walked away from the alleyway. He had to find another place to start looking. The rest of his group had already split up to search other regions on Skylia, and he had a set area to get through before the sun went down. His frustration was already starting to cost him, and he couldn't allow such a trend to keep up. 

Colt sighed and shook his head before setting out once again. Why was the universe so endlessly cruel to him? He was really starting to get sick of it. 

~~~~~

Jay was trying rather hard to hide her shock by the time Arian had finished sharing the details behind his dream. Everything that he had told her about fit perfectly with what she had seen during her vision, and the similarities were almost ominous. She was attempting to sense what magic he had, and she was certainly picking up on traces of Mystic power as he had claimed. It seemed that he was being honest after all. 

"So... What do you say?" Arian asked after he was finished. "I hope that's enough proof for you that I'm not lying or anything. I know that you're trying to hide it, but I can see that look in your eyes. You know that I'm being honest about this."

Jay hesitated before speaking once again. "It seems that we're after the same objective," she told him eventually. "It would make sense for us to ally ourselves as a team until we can figure out what to do next. What would you say to becoming a partnership for the time being?"

Arian grinned at her words. "That sounds spectacular! You seem to actually know what you're doing, so you certainly have a step up on me. I was clueless up until I saw you in the city, and you already seem to have found a clue regarding what to do next," he commented, gesturing to the picture in her hands. She hadn't released it since leaving the hotel. 

"I want you to be aware that this partnership is strictly for business though," Jay went on, her expression still stern. "I am not the type of person to settle down for ages with a given team, and that's not going to be changing now. If you really want to work with me, then you're going to have to understand that we are working together for a practical purpose, not for goofing around. I have a mission to fulfill, and I'm not going to let you get in the way of that. Should you obstruct my business, I will have to keep moving."

"Alright, alright," Arian told her shaking his head to show that he understood. "You seem pretty serious, but that's fine with me. I know how to do serious too." He paused for a moment before adjusting his expression to be just as solemn as hers was. She would have taken it for mockery in most other situations, but Jay was too focused on her objective to bother thinking that way. Besides, as much as she hated to admit it, Arian's help was likely going to be invaluable as she continued her search for the Skylian Mages.

"We're going to the library now," Jay told him, walking away from the alley. The tension in her shoulders had lessened, but it never quite disappeared fully. "We're looking for information on a woman named Lana Tarulum. The more we can find out about her, the better. It seems that she was alive at the same time as the original Hanilia, and we may be able to find a way to contact her to learn more about the Skylian Mages. 

"Alright," Arian agreed with a firm nod. He didn't say anything else, though it was clear that he was ready to burst from the need to engage in small talk. He followed after Jay wordlessly despite his instincts, and the two were silent the whole way to the city's library. 

Jay shot Arian a few glances over her shoulder on the way. There was something about Arian that bothered her no matter how much she tried to shove it aside. Her instincts hadn't lied to her in the past, so she had no reasons to ignore them, and she wondered if there was something else going on with him. He claimed to be a simple Mystic mage, but why would Lyloc have contacted someone who seemed so normal? He had to be part of the greater puzzle, so all Jay had to do was figure out where his piece slid into place. 

When she arrived at the library with him behind her, the building was just opening for the day. The were the first ones in the door, and Jay frowned as she glanced down to the picture in her hand. The time had come for her to figure out what was coming next, and she prayed that Arian would be able to aid her investigation rather than hinder it. The last thing she needed was a distraction, and she hoped that he didn't fall into that category. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Arian sm I missed writing him
> 
> -Digital


	4. Chapter Three: Search for Steel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jay and Arian search for clues about Lana Tarulum while the Clan Leaders head for Daragon.

Jay and Arian's search to learn more about Lana Tarulum wasn't going as hoped. They had been searching for a few hours when the time came for them to start thinking about lunch, but Jay still didn't want to give up. Her stomach was rumbling with a need for food, but she didn't want to move. It was as if the answer was on the tip of her tongue, and she was going to find a way to figure it out. 

Jay closed her eyes and scrubbed at her face with her hands, a sigh leaving her lips. She just wanted answers already. Jay considered herself a patient person, but there was only so much room she was willing to offer for this small investigation session. Lyloc was counting on her to figure out what was going on, and she wasn't about to disappoint her. 

Suddenly, Arian let out a sharp gasp and began tapping excessively at Jay's shoulder. She flinched away from him, not fond of human contact, but he didn't seem to notice. "You have to come look at this!" he hissed to her, his words practically ramming into each other due to his excitement. He was sitting in front of a computer and pointing at something aggressively. 

Computers were one thing that the Galaxy of Hyperion had in common with Earth. They had been developed much faster thanks to the power of Metal magic, but they ran rather similar where functionality was concerned. The reach was far wider in Hyperion, though that was to be expected as long as magic was factored into the equation. Still, Jay hadn't used them much, never seeing much of a need since she had always done things by herself. She couldn't deny how useful they were though, and if Arian had truly stumbled upon something helpful, she wasn't going to shut him down. 

Arian was pointing at a picture, and Jay couldn't help but frown. She didn't see any people in the photo since it appeared to be an overhead shot of a town. Still, each building was made of shining steel, and it was far from being normal as far as she could tell. "That's a city," she remarked, looking to Arian. She was still frowning deeply. "Is there something else I'm supposed to be seeing here?"

"This is the City of Steel," Arian replied. "It's an entirely artificial space created by one person. The occupants are all robots, inventions by the person who formed the city in the first place. The robots are highly intelligent, having gained emotional intelligence after years of evolution. As far as I can tell, they're being led by a figure who happens to be known as Antallumaur. However, when you look at that in a different way, then the true identity of this figure becomes clear."

Arian grabbed a nearby sheet of paper and began scribbling down the name Antallumaur. Slowly, he crossed off the letters, and Jay let out a gasp when she realized what he was talking about. "It's an anagram," she murmured. "It's an anagram of Lana Tarulum."

Arian nodded. "Yeah, it is. It's a rather unusual name, so I think it's safe to say that we've found the right person," he told her. "How about we go to this City of Steel and look around? Maybe we'll be able to get an audience with her, and that would give us the chance to find out what her connection to Lyloc and the other original Hanilia is."

"That sounds good to me," Jay agreed with a firm nod. She picked up the page that Arian had been marking on before creating a sphere of purple energy in her other hand. She brought both hands together, and when her palms pulled away, the page had been completely destroyed. 

"What was that for?" Arian questioned, glaring at Jay playfully. She wasn't sure they knew each other well enough for him to be quite so rambunctious, but there wasn't anything she could do to stop it, so she chose not to comment on it. 

"We don't want anyone following our tracks," Jay replied simply. "We don't know what we're looking for, and if there are any others out there who want to learn the same information that we do... It would just be for the best if we were careful to make sure that nobody could trace us."

"Alright... I think I get it," Arian nodded slowly. He rose to his feet after powering down the computer. "Do you have any idea where this City of Steel is? The page said that it was located here on Skylia somewhere, but I don't know any further details."

"We should be able to find that information rather easily," Jay shrugged. "I know how to travel through the Portal, so it shouldn't be difficult to go there. Are you familiar with Portal magic?"

Arian shook his head. "I'm afraid not... I was never quite able to figure it out fully," he admitted. "I'm glad that you know what you're doing though. That's going to make traveling around a lot easier than having to go from place to place via other methods. You're a pretty bright girl, aren't you?"

Jay rolled her eyes. "Keep the flattery to a minimum. This exchange is based only on business, and I would rather not get distracted by your antics, thank you very much," she told him, her tone even yet stern. She gestured for Arian to follow her, and he did so after watching her walk a few paces away. 

The rest of the library remained the same, no one bothering to look up at the peculiar pair. Jay was relieved for this, not in the mood to deal with the prying eyes of anyone in the area. She had more than enough to deal with as it was without trying to shake anyone off her back. The mission to figure out more about the Skylian Mages was most important in that moment, and she didn't want to get distracted just as she had told Arian. 

Jay shot him a brief glance out of her peripheral vision. He sure was a strange person, and she couldn't help but wonder what had made him so special. Jay was fully aware of why Lyloc had reached out to her, but Arian was something completely different. He didn't seem to be all that unique among the many mages that Jay had met in her time, and his magic seemed to be limited to only Mystic. There was something strange about him that she couldn't quite describe, but she knew without a shadow of a doubt that it bothered her. 

Jay led Arian into the alley next to the library, waiting for him to catch up fully. Once the two were standing beside each other, she began to create a rift in the air, gesturing for Arian to go through first. He shot her a smile that seemed to glow with all the light in the world before dashing through, and she watched him disappear with a frown. There was something he wasn't telling her, but what was it? Then again, she had no right to chastise him for such when she was keeping more than a few secrets of her own. She would simply have to figure everything out on her own. 

Jay slid through the portal soon afterwards, leaving the alley behind in the blink of an eye. She wondered about what was going on with Arian the entire way through the rift to the City of Steel. 

~~~~~

Jayler could hardly sit still when classes came to an end for the day. He packed everything into his back as quickly as possible before dashing out of the building. He and the rest of the Clan Leaders had agreed to meet around the back of the school before finding a secluded place to wait for Tuila. The Draconic Superior of Light had impeccable timing, so she wouldn't show up until after she was needed. 

Lex and Luke were already waiting for Jayler when he arrived, having come from the same choir class their final period of the day. Gemini was the next to show up, looking at her phone as she walked. Jayler felt his phone buzz and realized that Gemini had sent a text to ask where Ocean and Xia were. 

"Sorry I'm late!" Ocean exclaimed as she dashed closer. Jayler turned to see her running up behind him, an apologetic smile on her face. She bowed her head once she had arrived beside the group, sorry for taking a few moments longer despite not even being the last one to arrive. 

"We're still waiting on Xia," Luke assured her with a wave of his hand. He began to grip tightly at the strap of his backpack, rocking back and forth between his toes and heels in anticipation. 

"We're going to be here for ages then," Lex teased, nudging Gemini with her elbow. A small laugh left her lips, and Gemini rolled her eyes, hiding her amusement behind a muted grin. 

"Wow. Rude."

Jayler recognized Xia's voice without even having to turn around, and she appeared beside him a short few seconds later. Xia looked at the rest of the group before speaking once again. "So... Where are we going? Is there anywhere in particular we should be heading towards?" she asked. 

"Tuila's note didn't give us instructions about going to a specific place," Jayler told her with a shrug. "All we can really do is find an area that people aren't going to show up to. If we can do that, maybe we can get out of here without anybody noticing."

"That would certainly be for the best," Gemini agreed with a nod. "I know that dealing with our disappearances was a mess, and I would rather not force that on the Draconic Superiors again so soon."

"They'd figure something out," Lex assured her. She turned on her heel and gestured for the rest of the group to follow. "Now, how about we go towards one of the sports' fields? It's too cold for any practices to be hosted today, so it's not like anybody's going to be there."

Jayler realized that she was right, and he couldn't help but chuckle to himself. While he had been distracted with the note from Tuila at the start of his final class for the day, an announcement had been made over the intercom. All outdoor activities for the afternoon were being canceled due to the extreme cold. Jayler hadn't even noticed the chill until Lex mentioned it. 

He knew exactly why he hadn't caught onto it too. Thanks to his Fire magic, Jayler wasn't impacted by chilly weather, and the heat didn't bother him anymore either. Others had said he felt a bit warmer than most people, and he couldn't deny that they were right. The fire within him was strong enough to ward off all manner of cold winds. 

Ocean, on the other hand, was safe for a completely different reason. Her Ice magic was enough to protect her from particularly inclement weather thanks to the chill that seeped into her bones. He still found himself surprised at how cold she was when their hands accidentally touched, but the immunity to weather effects was undoubtedly useful. 

If anyone noticed Jayler's moment of giggly behavior, they didn't comment on it. Lex was the first to start moving, dashing off towards the abandoned football field. Football season had ended months prior, so it was rare to see anyone there in the first place, much less on a cold day like the one they were experiencing. In other words, it would be the perfect place for them to contact Tuila. It was easy to access, nearby, and outdoors. What more could they ask for?

Jayler couldn't help but run when the football field was in sight, only coming to a halt when he nearly slipped on a patch of ice on the field. Gemini shot out an arm to catch him before he could be sent sprawling to the ground, a small smirk on her face. He thanked her quietly, taking note to be more careful from then on, before pressing on further. 

Just as expected, the football field was empty when the group arrived. Jayler glanced around, admittedly not used to the large space. He hadn't ever set foot on the field prior to then, and he couldn't help but realize how huge it was. 

"I had a feeling you'd come here."

Jayler gasped upon hearing that familiar voice, and he was unable to hold back his goofy grin as he turned to face the one and only Tuila Raigh. "Hey!" Jayler greeted, waving enthusiastically. "I didn't expect to run into you here!"

"Yes, you did," Xia told him with a small snort and roll of her eyes. The moment of sarcasm was a clear way for her to distract from her own excitement, though it wasn't doing a good job, Jayler had to admit. 

"I'm glad that you're all here," Tuila announced. She slowly moved away from the shadow cast by the bleachers, her silver hair shining in the afternoon sunshine. Her tresses blew gently around her, and Jayler could see peeks of her pointed ears in between the strands occasionally. She was just the same as she had been before. 

"Are we ready to go?" Luke questioned, looking around with equal anxiety and excitement. The nervous behavior was taken from his fear of being spotted, something Luke would naturally think about as a voice of logic among the group. His excitement, on the other hand, was contagious, and even Gemini and Xia were grinning without a hint of hesitation. 

"I would say so," Tuila nodded. "A lot has happened since you were last in Hyperion, though I suppose that's to be expected. We've got a lot to show you when we arrive... We're going to be heading over to Skylia sometime soon for an important bit of information, but I'll take you to Daragon for now. We want to ease you all back into Hyperion rather than dumping it all on you at once, so please be patient for a while longer."

"After how long we've been waiting, I think we can hold on for just a wee bit more," Lex laughed, practically buzzing with anticipation. "But enough of that talk! We've got a planet to get back to, and I know we're all looking forward to it!"

Tuila let out a small laugh, and Jayler couldn't help but realize how much younger she appeared to be all of a sudden. Jayler had only known Tuila as she was during the war between the Fearbringers and the people of Daragon: a hardened soldier forced into the position of general to save a planet. However, now that the war was over, there was something different about her. She had finally been given a chance to relax, and it was more than enough to allow her to flourish. Jayler thought Tuila looked more alive right then than she ever had been before. 

Jayler's moment of distraction filled the rest of the time that the group was sent to be on Earth. Tuila created a portal in the moments that followed before ushering the six students inside. Jayler was the last to go inside, a wide smile on his face. At long last, he was finally going back to Hyperion, and who could say what was going to be waiting for him on the other side?

Unbeknownst to Jayler, Tuila, and the rest of the group, someone was watching from the shadows. Allison had seen Xia leaving the school building a while earlier and decided to trail after her, and she pressed her body against the gate to the football field with a frown on her face. Her eyes were wide at the sight of Tuila opening a hole in the sky, and she couldn't forget the sight of the peculiar woman with pointed ears and silver hair. The portal was even stranger to her, and Allison narrowed her eyes at the spot where the rift had been a few moments prior. 

"Interesting," Allison murmured before turning away from the scene. She didn't know what this was supposed to mean or what she could do with such information, but she knew that it was going to be staying in the back of her mind for a long time. "Very, very interesting."

~~~~~

Jayler opened his eyes and let out a sigh of relief as soon as he realized that he was back on Daragon. Immediately, he looked to his right hand and snapped his fingers together, creating a small fireball. The flames flickered intensely, far stronger than anything Jayler had been capable of on Earth, and all he could do was grin down at them. This was certainly one of the things he had missed the most. 

"I don't recognize this area," came the voice of Lex, snapping Jayler out of his trance. He slowly allowed his fire to extinguish before looking over to Lex. When he did, he realized just how unfamiliar the space seemed. 

There was a large city off in the distance, and the group was standing on what appeared to be a dirt road leading up to the enormous developmental space. It was nothing like the city Jayler had remembered walking into during his first visit to Daragon, though he truly shouldn't have been surprised. The war hadn't really offered him the chance to explore Daragon as freely as he would have liked, so there were undoubtedly countless locations that had yet to cross his path. 

Jayler grinned further to himself. There was no time quite like the present to explore a new planet, and that was just what he intended to do while on Daragon this time around. 

"That's good, because you shouldn't," Tuila commented with a hint of humor to her voice. "We're near one of the major cities of Daragon, but it's only recently come to flourish again. The war left it hollowed compared to its regular incarnation, but now, we actually have the chance to allow people to return to it without the worry of dealing with Fearbringers or other dangerous forces."

"The entire atmosphere of this place is different," Gemini murmured, shaking her head. "Before, we spent all our time underground in the hideout, but we can actually afford to look around up here on the surface for once... I certainly like this change."

"Me too," Luke admitted with a smile. "I'm going to look forward to being able to walk around a hub area that isn't an underground fortress. I mean, I liked the place well enough, and it most certainly helped us when we needed it, but... Oh, I feel like you all understand what I'm talking about."

"We're currently staying in a smaller building at the center of town," Tuila explained. "Most of the Draconic Superiors are out at the moment, but I can say that a few familiar faces really wanted to be here when you stopped by... You'll see what I mean soon enough."

Jayler eagerly trailed after Tuila as she led the group deeper into the city. There was a special type of life that seemed to buzz in the air, and he watched it all with wide, admiring eyes. There were more people in the city than he had seen throughout the entire war last time he was on Daragon. The fall of the Fearbringers truly had allowed the planet to begin thriving again, and he felt as if he had missed out on so much in such a short span of time. 

"Are we going to start operating out of a new hideout?" Ocean questioned with a curious tilt of her head. "There's no reason for us to use the old one anymore now that we don't need to hide ourselves from the Fearbringers, after all... I don't even know if this new space can be called a hideout in good conscience."

"That's what we're working on now," Tuila replied. "I can explain more when we arrive at our destination. Speaking of, we're getting much closer now, so I suggest preparing yourselves for a lot of activity."

As if on cue, Tuila stopped walking, and Jayler was pulled from his wide-eyed examination of the city to look at a rather simple-looking building off to his left. Tuila raised her hand to the doorknob before turning it and gesturing for the Clan Leaders to go inside All six of them hurriedly gave her their thanks before dashing in. 

The main room of the building was rather plain, Jayler had to admit, and something about it felt temporary. The group wasn't going to be hanging out there forever, and when they did leave, something great was going to be waiting. It was enough to make him grin brightly, and his cheeks felt ready to burst from the suddenly excessive act of smiling. 

Five people were waiting in the main space, Jayler noticed, and he glanced over all of them. Diamond, Liathine, Cordell, Valdez, and Zephyr were standing in a row, attempting to look neat and organized as far as he could tell. Still, all of them were smiling, including Valdez. Much like had been the case with Tuila, Valdez looked more alive than ever before, and such a sentiment applied to the rest of the group as well, albeit to a lesser extent. 

"Welcome back!" Cordell cried out, opening his arms widely for the Clan Leaders. He relaxed a few seconds later, this gesture signaling that he was available for any potential hugs they wished to give out, and Jayler was more than happy to take him up on his offer. He hadn't realized how much he missed Cordell's antics until after seeing his face once again. 

Jayler heard a general hubbub from all around him, and he got the feeling that the rest of the group was passing along their greetings to the remainder of the Draconic Superiors gathered in the area. When he pulled away from Cordell, a familiar sense of lovely chaos had fallen over the group, and all he could do was smile at the sight. It had been a while since he saw his companions look this excited, and he knew that he had Tuila to thank for it. Finally, they were back, and he hadn't been so overjoyed at something in a long time. 

"I guess that we should get right down to business," Liathine suggested, her voice cutting over the general noise of the reunion. Just as she had before, she was insistent on settling down with serious matters as soon as possible. Even if so much had changed throughout the rest of Daragon, Jayler found it relieving to know that some things still remained the same. 

"Yes, I agree," Valdez nodded, gesturing for the group to follow him deeper into the building. Jayler noticed a simple table was set up at the other end of the entryway, and he realized that the circular furniture had twelve chairs set up around its perimeter. In other words, it was the perfect number for them to sit down and have an important discussion. 

There was still a general hum to the air as Jayler and the rest of the Clan Leaders sat down for the meeting. He glanced around as everyone took their seats, noticing that his team had taken up one side of the table while the Draconic Superiors took the other. Even if they were relieved to be together once again, there was still a clear distinction between the two groups of Hanilia, though Jayler couldn't see a problem with such in the slightest. So long as they were able to work together in the long run, he didn't care at all who sat where at the initial meeting to discuss the recent happenings of Daragon. Thinking about what was to come made him continue to grin, and he was sure he looked like a goofball, but he couldn't bring himself to care. 

"We're starting to get everything back to the way it was before, but this isn't going to be easy for anyone," Diamond began, a sigh escaping their lips. "As it turns out, being at war for more than fifteen years makes it hard to return to peace."

"Still, we're managing," Tuila shrugged. "We're all going to have to work extra hard if we want things to get back to normal. Most people are able to settle back in their previous homes now that the Fearbringers have been cleared out, so larger cities are going to start thriving soon. Much of Daragon is forested, so we won't have to worry as much as if the war was on, say, Skylia for example."

"Speaking of Skylia, we have a nice surprise planned," Zephyr grinned, practically unable to sit still. "You guys are not going to believe this."

"We can talk about that later. For now, let's focus on keeping them updated on what's going on here on Daragon," Tuila told Zephyr, prompting the other Draconic Superior to let out a small sigh. Still, they didn't seem too overly dejected, instead choosing to play it up for the sake of dramatics. 

"How about the princess?" Xia questioned carefully, clearly not liking the answer she was bound to get. She already seemed to be ready to cringe as far as Jayler could tell, and he couldn't blame her. He prayed that they wouldn't be forced to interact with Skipper Mae Meltua again for quite some time. There was only so much of her that he could take in one lifetime. 

"She's ruling over Daragon now, taking credit for everything that happened," Tuila sighed with a shake of her head. "We shouldn't be overly surprised by such, but it's still a bit frustrating, I suppose. Still, we don't need to think much about her. There are other matters that require our attention first, and we can leave her to her own devices for now."

"What can we do to help?" Lex asked, looking to the Draconic Superiors with wide, curious eyes. "We've all been looking forward to this, and I'm sure that each of us is more than happy to do whatever you need of us to bring things back to the way they were."

"Normally, we would have something for you to do, but we've decided to put you six on one of our most important projects," Liathine replied. "It's not something that we were always planning on doing, but as it turns out, Zephyr has amazing ideas from time to time."

"No need to sound so shocked," Zephyr said with an exasperated sigh and a roll of their eyes. "Still, I really did it this time. You guys aren't going to believe what you're doing next."

"We can talk about that after catching them up," Valdez sighed, shaking his head. "The point is that Daragon is slowly starting to get back to normal. We haven't had any contact with the Fearbringers who rebelled against Mersall since the war came to a close. No other Fearbringers have done anything either, but we're doing all that we can to be ready should they decide to strike once again."

"You mean... Zelda and the rest of the group's members are gone?" Lex questioned with a tilt of her head. "Where do you think they could have disappeared to?"

"We aren't sure, but we don't exactly have time to chase after them right now," Cordell replied with a loose shrug. "If they decide to cause problems, we'll go after them again, but for now, we've got a world to reconstruct, and I personally believe it would be wise for us to focus on Daragon rather than their antics. After all, even if things are starting to fall back into routine, there are still a lot of people who are dealing with the consequences of the fighting."

"It's going to be a team effort to get everything back to normal, and we're going to need more people than we currently have access too," Tuila went on. "That's exactly where all of you are coming in. We've got an idea of something for you to do that will most certainly aid us in the long run, but you're going to have to be careful."

"You're starting to worry us here," Gemini commented with a frown as she crossed her arms. "We aren't going to have to do anything dangerous, right?"

"Dangerous? Not at all," Liathine replied. "You're going to act as recruiters. We've realized as of late that the Hanilia factions have become dangerously isolated. Between the fall of the Skylox Heroes, the Fearbringers declaring war, and various other issues throughout the Galaxy of Hyperion, the different groups of Hanilia aren't exactly as used to working together as they once were."

"You want us to reach out to the rest of the Hanilia groups and get them to work with us then," Ocean concluded. "It could be risky business though since we don't know what all of these Hanilia are up to since so much time has passed since all of the factions have come together as allies, right?"

Tuila nodded. "Exactly... We do have a plan on how to make this easier though, and I hope that it's something you'll rather enjoy. Of course, it will require a trip to Skylia, but we can take care of that later," she told the group. 

Zephyr grinned madly, practically bouncing on the spot in their chair. "Can I tell them now?" they questioned, eyes gleaming with excitement. 

Tuila chuckled at Zephyr's anticipation before nodding. "Yes, go right ahead, Zephyr," she instructed. 

Zephyr nodded enthusiastically before turning their full attention towards the Clan Leaders. If they had been forced to keep their plan secret for a few minutes longer, they undoubtedly would have burst, barely able to contain their energy. "Alright, kids," they began. "Let's get right into the plan."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For today's author's note, I shall scream about Owl House. I am emotionally destroyed. 
> 
> -Digital


	5. Chapter Four: Sixteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jay and Arian arrive at the City of Steel to speak with its leader.

Jay's jaw dropped as soon as she caught sight of the City of Steel. One could have easily called it impressive, but that would have been a severe understatement as far as Jay was concerned. All she could do was stare at the endless metal stretching out before her. 

There were too many buildings to be counted, all of them tall enough to pierce the sky. The city was mapped out in a perfect grid system, not a single hair out of place. The people navigating the space all had some sort of robotic enhancement, and they carried themselves with a sense of confidence that Jay hadn't seen in a long time. The sky glimmered orange around the tallest building in the City of Steel. 

Said building was a skyscraper with a notable spire that rested among the sky easily. A gentle orange light glimmered at its apex, flashing every few seconds. The air had the appearance of twilight despite it being close to the middle of the day, and a glass dome kept the city contained. The rest of the surrounding area was made of hot, scorching desert, but Jay didn't even feel the heat as she stared at the city. It was more than amazing enough to pull her attention away from the sweat starting to bead on the back of her neck. 

Arian was the first to move after the city came into view. "Damn," he murmured, breathing the word before taking a small step towards the glass dome ahead. The top of the glass disappeared in the sky along with the tops of the taller buildings, and it was difficult to say for sure how tall the space was. The City of Steel had been crafted meticulously by someone who knew exactly what they were doing, some genius who had far too much time on their hands. 

Jay followed Arian closer to the door of the glass dome. It blended in with the rest of the transparent material, and she could barely see the outline of the entrance among the glass. Once she was close enough, Jay pressed her hand against the surface, closing her eyes to take in the atmosphere. She realized that there wasn't a knob, and despite her pushing against the door, it wasn't opening. 

"We probably have to contact one of the people inside to get in," Arian whispered to her. He glanced around with a frown before taking another step to the right. His foot collided with a small patch of silver among the desert sand, and an orange button rested atop the metal. It was a control panel of some sort, but it was hard to say exactly what it did. 

Arian hesitated before leaning down and pressing his palm onto the button, needing to use a surprising amount of force to keep the button down long enough for the push to register. Once he was sure that such had been done, he moved back to Jay's side and started rocking back and forth between his toes and heels to pass the time. Sand kicked up around his shoes. 

A pair of figures appeared soon afterwards, and Jay watched them with curious eyes. She could see that one of them was wearing a helmet made of silver metal that seemed to attach to their skull somehow. The other had a right arm made completely of steel. They both wear clothing of white, gray, and orange, fitting in with the color scheme of the city seamlessly. The pair stopped on the other side of the dome, and one pressed their hand against the glass. 

A speaker rose out from the sand below immediately, and Arian stumbled backwards from surprise. Jay threw her arm out at the last second to keep him from completely falling over in his shock. Arian righted himself soon afterwards with an awkward smile plastered haphazardly on his lips, and he stared at the speaker the same way that Jay did. 

"State your intentions," the first of the two new arrivals said bluntly. Their voice lacked any sense of emotion, but Jay wasn't about to be deceived by such a display of bluntness. If the city was this advanced, she couldn't imagine that the people weren't capable of feeling something. The entire area had been crafted perfectly, and making people without programming emotions into their heads seemed like a grave oversight. This was likely the typical way to greet strange visitors from outside the city if she had to guess. She couldn't imagine that the City of Steel saw many newcomers.

"We're here to speak with your leader," Jay responded firmly. "We believe that Antallumaur may be able to aid us with a task in the future."

The second of the two people looked to the first, and they both shook their heads. "We cannot allow you entrance," the second person told them simply. "We only accept visitors into the City of Steel by invitation, and Antallumaur has no meetings scheduled for today. If you truly wish to speak with her, I would suggest that you do a bit of research first."

Arian fumbled for words to get them to open up, but he wasn't fast enough. The two metal-bound people disappeared around a corner before traveling deeper into the city, and he let out a sigh as soon as they vanished from sight. "This sucks," he murmured with a shake of his head. "What are we supposed to be doing now?"

"We have to find a way to get an audience with her," Jay shrugged. "There won't be a way for us to sneak in. Look at the ground of the city." She pointed to the space within the glass dome, and Arian followed her gaze. Metal lined the bottom of the area, blocking out the desert sand from outside the glass. 

"I'm willing to bet that Antallumaur is a Metal mage, so chances are that sort of metal is reinforced with really strong magic," Arian muttered, frowning deeply. "She would have to have Metal magic if she was able to pull off all this. She's praised like a goddess around here as far as I can tell."

"She's certainly thorough," Jay frowned. "She has protocol to allow people within the City of Steel, knows how to keep people out, and planned all of this seemingly on her own. Then again, if she's really been around since the days of Lyloc, she's certainly had the time to figure all of that out."

"We can figure out how to get in after we leave," Arian suggested. "I somehow doubt that we're going to get anything by just standing here. There's got to be somewhere we can gather this sort of information. Now that we know what we're looking for, it should be a lot easier to find out more information."

Jay nodded. "Chances are you're right," she agreed. "I'm not sure where we should go to look around... Do you have any ideas? We could go back to the library if need be. Now that we know the name Antallumaur is what we need to be looking for, we should be able to break through any barriers that were in our way before we came here."

"Alright," Arian said. He shot a brief glance towards the entrance of the city before walking away. "I don't think we should stand around here any longer than we already have. People are going to start getting suspicious if we loiter for too long."

As much as Jay hated to admit it, he had a point. She followed him, leaving the City of Steel behind her. She had been hoping that reaching out to Antallumaur would be a simple operation, but she should have known that nothing in life is that easy. Even if she and Arian were being forced to go back to the drawing board, at least they had some semblance of a plan for what to do next. 

~~~~~

"There's a castle in the capital city of Skylia," Zephyr began. The Clan Leaders were watching them with curious eyes as they rose to their feet and started to pace around the area. "The castle was once used as the hub area for the Skylox Heroes, the strongest force of fighters in the entire Galaxy of Hyperion."

"The Skylox Heroes fell due to the Tablet of Sapphin being destroyed," Valdez chimed in. "Their spirits were all tied to the tablet so that their lifespans would be greatly increased. No matter how many years they had lived, they would continue to survive as long as the Tablet of Sapphin remained intact."

"The Battle of Nadia was where all of that began to fall apart. It was a massacre, and Zelda Artem of the Fearbringers snuck into the castle the Skylox Heroes used as a base before destroying Sapphin. All of the Skylox Heroes died as soon as the tablet was destroyed, and the castle has gone abandoned since then," Tuila went on. "The Skylox Heroes acted as powerful mercenaries of sorts for many years, and they had the sheer numbers to oppose even the Fearbringers. That was why Mersall got rid of them. They were the only force that could topple his empire on Daragon."

"You're saying that we should take over the castle and give it a home," Lex concluded. "I guess that would make sense... If it housed so many Skylox Heroes for years, then it would certainly act as a good base if we were to try and reach out to other Hanilia factions."

"Exactly," Zephyr grinned. "It only makes sense that we would use such a space as long as it's there. Nobody's dared to go inside since the Skylox Heroes fell. The government on Skylia was heavily tied to the Skylox Heroes looking over the area, you see. When they all perished in the Battle of Nadia, the government sort of crumbled."

"That's one way of saying it, anyways," Liathine frowned. "You see, Daragon might have a monarchy, but under most circumstances, the Meltua family doesn't exactly rule over the entire planet unchecked. There's normally a voting system to keep them from exercising too much power, you see, but that all fell apart when the war started."

"Skylia has a direct democracy, and all the people vote through a magical system for the sake of passing laws. Lyloc was the one to preside over all of that along with the rest of the Skylox Heroes, and when they perished... Let's just say that things started getting rough. Without a central form of government, the people just kept on as they were, trying to pretend the problem didn't exist. Crime began to rose, but as long as they weren't directly impacted, nobody really gave it a second thought," Diamond continued. 

"If you ask me, they were being foolish," Valdez muttered. "There's nothing we can do to change it now though, so we're simply going to move onto Skylia and establish the castle for the Hanilia to stay in. We can use it as a base in case we wind up needing something like that in the future. That would give us a perfect chance to reach out to the rest of the Hanilia across the Galaxy of Hyperion as well, and it would all fall in our favor."

"That's exactly why we're going for the castle," Zephyr declared. "We want you all to help us establish the castle as a place for all of us to stay. On top of that, we're going to need you to go out and try to form ties with other Hanilia. Not all of them are as organized as you six are."

"The Skylox Heroes were always the most organized of the Hanilia factions," Cordell remarked. "Of course, we can't exactly ask for their advice given that they're not around anymore. That just means that we're going to have to establish our own system of reaching out to the rest of the Hanilia that we haven't come across yet."

"In general, Hanilia don't stick together all the time," Tuila told the Clan Leaders. "You six are naturally close friends as far as I can tell, so there's a reason for you to stay together away from the battlefield. The Draconic Superiors have that to a lessened degree, but it's still not that much. The rest of the Hanilia groups are even less organized, and that means we're going to have to actively try to pull all of them together if this plan is truly going to work out in our favor."

"I think that's a perfect thing for us to do," Ocean smiled. "We could certainly use the chance to become more acquainted with the rest of the planets given that we've only really spent a lot of time on Daragon. Plus, it could be fun to clean up the castle and turn it into a home for people like us."

"There shouldn't be any issues with us going into the castle and taking it over. It's not like anybody's going to stop us given the recent collapse of a central government on Skylia," Zephyr shrugged. "Some people might be upset, but I feel like that's a small price to pay given what we're going to be getting out of the castle space."

"The plan was to update you on the situation today and prepare for you to potentially come here tomorrow to start working on the castle," Tuila commented. "It'll be best for us to get an earlier start on moving into the palace, after all."

"The planets aren't exactly aligned in terms of days," Liathine remarked. "It's afternoon here on Daragon just like it is on Earth, but it's closer to midday on Skylia. I personally believe it would be best for us to wait until tomorrow when you know what you're walking into. Plus, it'll be morning tomorrow when you arrive, which is even better."

"It's like the planets have timezones," Luke said with a nod. "I suppose that makes sense, but I never quite considered that as a possibility... A-Anyways, we're more than happy to take care of all that."

"What do you two say?" Jayler questioned, turning his attention to Xia and Gemini. They hadn't said anything since the conversation about moving onto Skylia had begun, and he was certainly curious about if they had any feedback. 

"I think it sounds fine," Gemini shrugged. "We're going to have to do a lot of cleaning if we want to get that place back into working order as far as I can tell, but I believe we can handle it."

"After killing Mersall, the idea of cleaning up a castle sounds refreshingly easy," Xia snorted, but a goodnatured smile was on her face. "I guess that means we're all in agreement on the matter."

"Perfect," Jayler grinned, clapping his hands together before letting them fall onto the table. "Tomorrow, we're going to get started on looking into changing the castle into a home for all Hanilia. I would say that our first day back in the Galaxy of Hyperion has already provided some fruits regarding our productivity."

"The rest of the Draconic Superiors should be arriving back here soon," Tuila declared. "We can give you all the chance to see them once again, and then we can move on with planning our next move for the move over to the castle on Skylia."

Jayler smiled as he got to his feet and followed after Tuila. It had only been a day since he arrived back in the Galaxy of Hyperion, and he was already enjoying himself. Things were bound to get better from there, and he couldn't wait to see what the future had in store. 

~~~~~

Jay and Arian had been searching for a few hours when the latter started to get hungry. He suggested that he and Jay go to find food somewhere, and she reluctantly agreed. They left the library behind to start moving towards a small cafe within the capital. The space was rather busy, and people were talking constantly. The buzz kept anyone from eavesdropping on their conversation, but just to be sure, Jay elected to sit in a booth near the back of the building with Arian. Jay stirred at her tea mindlessly as Arian took a swig from his water. Neither one of them spoke at first, unsure of what would be best to say first. 

"We're getting closer to being able to make an appointment Lana Tarulum," Arian offered with a small smile. "That should make it easier for us to ask her if she knows anything about the Skylian Mages. If she has information for us, then maybe we'll be able to press on and learn more in the future about them."

"We'll figure something out," Jay shrugged. "We don't even know how many of them there are going to be. Hanilia factions cover each element out of the twenty-five, but we can't say for sure how the elements are going to be broken up."

"Then how about we start by asking what elements the other has?" Arian suggested. "I mean, I feel like Lyloc reached out to us because we're involved in all of this somehow, and that's got to be a good place to begin, right?"

Jay hesitated before shrugging once again. "Yeah, sure," she murmured. She fell silent as a waiter came by to set down bowls of soup before both her and Arian. The two mages offered their thanks as the newcomer disappeared before turning their attention towards their food. 

"You already heard what I've got at my fingertips," Arian commented. "I mentioned earlier that I'm a Mystic mage. I don't know what you can do though. You're able to move through the Portal, but that's not exactly indicative of what element you have."

Jay was silent at first, focusing on spooning soup into her mouth rather than on what Arian was saying. He knew that she had heard him, so he didn't press her further. Jay let out a sigh before taking a drink of her tea. "Mystic," she muttered. "I don't use magic much though. I prefer to fight with my sword."

"That's rather unusual," Arian remarked. "Most of the time, people prefer to use their magic rather than weapons. Only Blade mages really use a blend of both."

"I'm different," Jay said bluntly. "I learned how to fight with a sword first rather than with magic, so I'm far more comfortable with it. If I have no other choice, I'll use my powers, but I would prefer to avoid it for a variety of reasons."

"Such as...?" Arian prompted. "You have to give me at least some ideas here, right? Please don't just leave me hanging like that, Jay. We're supposed to be working together on this mess."

"It's a long story, and I would rather not get into it," Jay explained. "If I feel like it's important to discuss in the future, then I'll tell you about it, but for right now, I would like to keep this a secret."

Arian sighed. "I understand..." he whispered. There was something oddly tense about his posture, and he was clearly desperate to say something else, but he was silent anyways. He focused entirely on his food in the seconds that followed, figuring out that pushing Jay any further wouldn't have a point. 

Jay didn't press for conversation either. She had gotten used to working alone, and even when she did collaborate with others, she tended to prioritize actions above anything that could come out of her mouth. She was quiet throughout the rest of lunch, and Arian followed suit. The only speaking that was done was directed at their waiter. 

After the meal was finished, Jay dropped the appropriate amount of money onto the table and finished off her drink. She pushed her chair away from the table and started walking towards the door. Arian watched her in stunned silence at first before following suit, and the two were back out on the street less than half a minute later. Jay was already walking in the direction of the library once again. 

"We really need to work out a way to communicate with each other, you know," Arian suddenly said, and Jay stopped walking to turn and face him with curiosity glittering in her brown eyes. "If we're going to be working together for a while, we have to know how to talk to one another. I know that there are some things you aren't ready to explain to me, and I'm more than happy to respect that, but I still want to try and at least get to know you before we jump into this mess headfirst, you know?"

Jay shook her head. "We're working purely for business reasons. We need to find the Skylian Mages, and I see no reason for small talk right now. We have to press on with our mission and figure out more about the people who Lyloc has sent us to search after. I do hope that you understand," she explained. She started walking again a few seconds later, leaving Arian to scurry after her. His steps weren't large enough to keep up with hers, so he wound up having to practically throw himself forward every once in a while to ensure he didn't fall behind. 

The rest of the walk to the library passed in silence, and Jay opened the door before holding it for Arian. He nodded to her in thanks, and they moved towards the same seats they had been using before their break for lunch. Once again, they fell back into their routine of silent research, and Arian wound up spending far longer than expected stealing glances over in Jay's direction, trying to figure out what was in her head. 

Jay didn't let him poke too deeply, keeping her expression passive and inscrutable as she continued trying to learn more about Lana Tarulum. She noticed that Arian was looking at her, but she didn't bother trying to force him to look away. She knew that such wouldn't have had much of a point, and it wasn't doing any harm. As unsettling as it was, Jay didn't care in the long run, and she knew that he would have to grow out of it eventually. Their mission counted on him being able to move on like an adult. 

An adult. 

Jay couldn't help but frown as she realized that she hadn't learned all that much about Arian. She knew his name and magic, but his age was completely out of her grasp. She paused in her searching and looked over to him. "Arian... How old are you?" she questioned, surprising even herself with the bluntness of her inquiry.

Arian's searching immediately came to a stop, and he looked over to Jay with a light tilt of his head as he registered her question. As soon as he had figured out what she meant, his expression lit up. "Sixteen," he replied. 

Jay couldn't help but frown at his response. "I see," she murmured. She would have expected most sixteen-year-olds to be with their families while training to use their powers. For the most part, people lived with their parents until they were eighteen to twenty, so to hear that Arian was wandering around Skylia on his own at such a young age unsettled her in ways she hadn't expected. 

Then again, it wasn't as if she really had a right to comment on that. She was the same age that he was, and she was doing the same thing. Jay didn't know where Arian had come from, but perhaps they were similar in the category of family. She didn't have anything to go back to, and she was starting to wonder if Arian was any different. 

"You're shocked," Arian frowned, his eyes narrowing. "I get that it's a bit weird. I mean, most people my age are supposed to be in school still, but... Listen, things happened, and that's no longer possible for me. You can have secrets, but that just means that I can do the same, alright?"

"There's a reason that you're on your own," Jay muttered, more to herself than anyone else. "I see." 

"I mean... Yeah," Arian admitted. "It's not like there's anywhere else for me to go, so I've taken to wandering around Skylia on my own, doing whatever needs to be done. It's not a job you'd expect from someone like me, but it's what I've got. That's all that I can count on, and I'm not about to let it go."

"This mission from Lyloc is giving you a sense of purpose after all your wandering then," Jay commented. She didn't meet his gaze, instead choosing to stare intensely at the back of her hand. Maybe she had more in common with Arian than she had thought originally. 

"You could say that," Arian said softly. "But that's not important right now. We have to try and find out more about Lana Tarulum. Lyloc is still counting on us, and I'm not about to let her down after all that we've already done, you know?"

Jay nodded her understanding before looking back to her computer. She was oddly restless as she continued her search, and she couldn't help but wonder what Arian had been involved with in the past. She understood his desire to keep the events of the past a secret; she was much the same way. Still, she wondered if she would ever figure out what had taken place involving him for him to be exploring Skylia without any strings attached. 

It was hard to say if Arian shared her curiosities. He seemed to be an open book at first glance due to his laidback and relaxed nature, but Jay was quickly learning that was not the case. If anything, this was just a way for him to persuade everyone that nothing was bothering him regardless of what he was actually thinking. He was an actor beneath all of the snarky comments and bright smiles. He seemed to have an earnest and honest heart, but she couldn't say for sure. She needed to spend more time with him to truly figure out what his motivation was for all of this. 

As good of a motivator as Lyloc was, Jay couldn't help but feel as if there was something more to it. Why had he been called upon by Lyloc? The Skylian Mages were an odd bunch as far as she could tell, and she couldn't even begin to fathom why Lyloc would have wanted to get someone like him involved. It didn't make sense to her in the slightest. However, she wasn't able to figure out what the truth was no matter how long she stared at him. The roles had reversed, and soon enough, she was the one offering sideways glances his direction. If he noticed, he took special care to not return the action or meet her eyes. Jay frowned solemnly at the observation. 

"Aha! Here we go!"

Arian's sudden cry cut through Jay's thoughts like a knife, and her daze was brought to a sudden and brutal halt. She looked over to see what was going on with Arian, and she noticed that he was grinning like a fool. "I think I've figured out our answer here," he explained. "According to this site, Lana is pretty picky about who she lets speak to her. She's had to deal with a lot of frustrating figures in the past, so she has a strict system regarding who is allowed within the walls of the City of Steel."

"What do we have to do to get in then?" Jay asked, raising an eyebrow in curiosity. 

"We have to prove ourselves worthy of her attention, but I don't know what that means," Arian sighed. "Maybe it's something about showing that you're a righteous and good person. I can't say for sure, but I don't think that it's going to be something that comes easily to us."

"Let's try and keep digging then," Jay sighed with a shake of her head. "I don't know how she would know that we're doing anything good though. I somehow doubt that she'd be able to have eyes on us at all times, and watching everyone in the world... I think that's a bit farfetched."

"We'll figure it out," Arian assured her. "We just have to keep looking, and I'm sure the answer will come our way soon enough."

Jay nodded slowly before returning to her search. She stopped looking over at Arian, practically forcing herself to pay attention to the subject at hand. It still bothered her that somebody sixteen was tied up in dangerous business like this, and she couldn't help but wonder what the hell Arian had gotten himself into. 

~~~~~

Inside a building tall enough to touch the sky, a woman sat on an ornate throne made purely of orange metal. Her head was tilted gently to the side as she stared at a crystal ball on a podium before her. In truth, the crystal sphere was not made of crystal at all, instead being comprised of a transparent metal that swirled and rotated with each passing second. 

The woman pressed her fingers against the surface of the sphere, pinpointing a single spot on the image she was staring at. Jay and Arian were sitting together in the library of Skylia's capital city, and the woman's finger hovered over the tattoo inscribed into Jay's cheek. A smile crept upon her lips. 

"Finally," the woman breathed. "It appears that I'm being called into action once again."

The woman banished the image before rising to her feet and sliding the podium away. She couldn't stop grinning as she made her way towards the door of the room. It had been far too long since she was able to fight, but it seemed as if she would finally be able to prove her battlefield prowess once again. It had been far too long, but she was ready. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Arian is pretty neat
> 
> -Digital


	6. Chapter Five: Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Clan Leaders plan their next step for the Skylia expedition.

When the Clan Leaders arrived back on Earth, Jayler couldn't stop smiling. A few hours had passed, and he was internally thankful that he had remembered to text his mother before school got out to say that he was going to be hanging out with some friends. Of course, she hadn't objected in the slightest, glad that Jayler had managed to form such a lovely community, so he was more than fine with going back home without suffering any punishments for staying out so late. 

The sun was starting to set, and Jayler cringed as he realized how long they had been on Daragon. It really hadn't felt like too much time had passed, but he had been rather excited, so that likely distorted his view on the world around him. The rest of the Clan Leaders seemed just as shocked as him when they arrived back on the empty football field. Nobody was around, and they were able to walk away from the field without any issues. 

"I want to hang out tonight," Xia suggested as she shut the door behind the rest of the group. "I guess I'm excited about tomorrow. Plus, we can plan what we're going to be doing after we head back to Hyperion if we're all together."

"Any volunteers for a place to stay then?" Luke questioned. "I guess that we could come back to my house... My dad is working late tonight, so it would just be us. I don't think we'd need to worry about him overhearing us, because by the time he's going to be getting back, we'll probably already be asleep."

"That would be lovely," Ocean smiled. "Maybe we could all split up for a while to get our things together and then head over. Thank you for offering, Luke."

Luke beamed at her words before looking to the rest of the team. "Um... What do you all think? Is this okay with you?" he questioned. 

Nods surfaced from Gemini, Lex, and Jayler, prompting Luke to smile once again. "Alright... In that case, I suppose I'll see you all in about an hour or so. If you want to bring some extra money, then we could order pizza and share it while discussing a plan for tomorrow," he told the team. 

"Consider it a plan then!" Lex exclaimed, clapping her hands together excitedly. "I'll see you all then!"

Farewells rang out from the rest of the group as all six of the Clan Leaders went their separate directions. Jayler pulled his phone from his pocket to call for his mom to come and pick him up. She answered quickly and said that she was going to be on her way soon, giving Jayler a moment to gather his bearings and try to put on a mask of regular behavior before she arrived. He didn't want to seem too excited over seemingly nothing and risk making her suspicious. As a whole, Michelle Rose never pried into his affairs too much, but Jayler still thought that it was best to be safe rather than sorry. 

Jayler sat down on a bench outside the school after he had finished the call, cringing when he realized that his upper legs were covered in snow since he had forgotten to clear the space away before taking a seat. Jayler shook his head and thanked the group for coming up with the idea to split up and then regroup. The last thing he would have wanted to deal with was soaking trousers for the rest of their meeting. 

Still, Jayler shut his eyes, and he leaned back against the bench while trying to forget the uncomfortable sensation beneath him. He thought back to all that had happened that day, and he started smiling all over again. He was glad to have finally gotten the chance to go back to the Galaxy of Hyperion after all this time, but he couldn't help but think about what he had missed out on that first day. 

There was still something important that Jayler had to accomplish on the other side. He didn't know how he was going to pull it off, but Jayler simply had to figure out a way to reach out to the Silver Knight. It had been far too long since he was last able to see her in his opinion. Even if not that much time had passed since he was on Hyperion from a technical standpoint, it was still enough to bother him. He had been looking forward to meeting up with her again all this time, and he wasn't about to back down from it since Hyperion was finally within his grasp. 

There wasn't all that much for him to go off though. The Silver Knight had told him what her former name was before she took up a new title: Lia Rose. Still, that wasn't enough for him to actively track her down. He had changed his name at one point after all, and trying to find him through his birth name wasn't going to work out either. He didn't know at all what she could have changed her name to, but without that simple clue, how could he track her down? All he knew was that she supposedly looked similar to him underneath the silver armor. 

Jayler was a Hanilia in the Clan Leaders' group, but the Silver Knight was part of the same faction. There had to be a reason for that. She was likely part of another Hanilia group, but which one? If he was going to be trying to reach out to other Hanilia as part of the castle operation, he could get closer to finding her, but that was still a shaky proposal. The Silver Knight was rather good at hiding herself when she didn't want to be found, and who could say for sure if she was ready to come out of the hole she had been in since the end of the war with the Fearbringers? His only way to reach out to her was already proving itself to be shaky and uncertain, and he hated it. 

Jayler watched as his mother's car slid into the nearby parking lot, and he forced himself off the bench. His smile had faded away already, something that tended to happen when he thought of how hard tracking down his sister was going to be. Michelle didn't seem to suspect anything as Jayler slid into the passenger seat of the car before shutting the door. 

"What did you wind up staying after school for?" she asked first before taking the car away from the lot. 

Jayler kicked himself for not coming up with an excuse sooner before covering at the last moment. "Just studying with some friends," he replied. "I'm going to be heading over to Luke's house tonight with the rest of the group. We wanted to get a break from schoolwork after all that studying."

"Alright," Michelle smiled, looking over to her son for a moment before her eyes flickered back to the road. "You seem to be in a rather good mood. Is it because you're going to be seeing your friends?"

Jayler hadn't even realized that he had started grinning after getting back in the car. Hyperion had slipped into the back of his mind again when he wasn't paying attention, it seemed. Finally, he was back in a world of magic after all this time, and his joy for such wasn't going to be forgotten easily. 

But Jayler didn't say any of this. Instead, he shrugged his shoulders loosely. "I guess so," he replied. 

~~~~~

Jay was already starting to get a bit frustrated with Lana Tarulum. 

The first step of her shared journey with Arian was proving itself to be aggravating already. Despite how long the two had been searching, all Jay and Arian had stumbled upon was the concept that Lana would reach out if someone acted in a way deserving of the gods. What was that supposed to mean? 

It appeared to be symbolic of a pure act, but Jay still wasn't sure what Lana could have meant when she said something like that. Arian seemed to be just as confused as she was deep down, but he hid it behind a mask of optimism and determination that everything would be fine. Jay wished that she was less realistic for just a moment, wondering why she wasn't able to buy into Arian's easy reassurances. 

After Jay and Arian walked away from the library, night had fallen, and Jay couldn't help but cringe at how late it had become. The first day had been far from promising, and she was already starting to get frustrated. She kicked a stray pebble on the ground and watched it bounce away before screaming at herself to focus and stay grounded. There was no reason getting worked up when she was encountering a small roadblock. Soon enough, everything would come together. All she really had to do was give it a bit of extra time. 

"Why don't we head into the nearby hotel for the night?" Arian questioned. He pointed to the building that Jay had been staying in the night before, and she cringed. She had canceled her stay at the hotel after hearing about her mission from Lyloc. She hadn't thought that she would need to stick around for any longer than she already had. 

Jay hesitated before shaking her head. "Let's go somewhere else. We can find another place that might have new information for us, and we can settle down there for the night. All we need to do is hop through the Portal," she told him. Arian stared at her in shock for a moment before burying his confusion as deep as possible and nodding in her direction. 

Jay formed a hole in the sky before she had even properly registered where she was heading. Arian trailed after her, and Jay walked out with a small sigh. She recognized this space rather well, though she wished that she could store her memories of the space in the back of her mind, never to be brought up again. 

"I think I know where we are..." Arian whispered as he looked around for himself. "We're in one of the smaller towns near Nadia, aren't we?"

Nadia, the town that had fallen during the sole Fearbringer attack on Skylia. Nadia, the town that the Skylox Heroes had tried to defend only to fall in the process. Nadia, the town that had signified the beginning of the end for Skylia. 

Chances were that it had useful information, but Jay really hated that she had to be back here. 

"We're going to search the area in the morning," Jay answered bluntly. "The Skylox Heroes were defeated in the Battle of Nadia. Their leader was Lyloc, a Skylian Mage. There weren't any other clues at the castle, so we're going to look around here and pray that we manage to latch onto something. We can figure out another space to look for more information regarding the act worthy of the gods later if this winds up falling through. How does that sound?"

Jay's voice left no room for objection, but it didn't seem as if Arian was going to speak out against her anyways. He nodded softly before trailing after her away from the entrance to the town. There was a rundown hotel at the back of the space, and the two entered the space silently. Jay's shoulders remained knotted tight with tension, but Arian didn't comment in the slightest, too focused on getting to a bed to bother. 

Jay handled everything involving their rooms. She wound up paying for two, one for each of them, because she had the extra money and really didn't want to deal with Arian all night. It wasn't as if she hated him or anything; Jay simply valued her personal space, and him waltzing into her life had shattered the bubble of peace that she had enjoyed for so long prior to his appearance. 

Arian waved her goodbye silently, and Jay walked into her room before shutting the door behind her. A sigh left her lips, and she practically collapsed onto the bed she was going to be using for the night. Jay had been hoping that perhaps things would be easy involving reaching out to Lana, but that was quickly establishing itself to be nothing more than a pipe dream. She understood why Lana would be defensive of her privacy and the boundaries for the City of Steel, but it complicated her mission, so Jay still found herself upset regardless. 

She hadn't felt this way in quite some time. For ages, life seemed to pass around her as she sat at its center, numb and unfeeling to the world around her. There was more than enough reason to justify such, but she would prefer to not think about it. Jay shook her head to herself and closed her eyes. Lyloc reaching out had finally given her something to do, and she had been all too eager to grasp it. If only Lyloc had been a bit kinder in her distribution of tasks. 

Then there was the matter of Arian. Jay couldn't figure out what was going on with him, but he bothered her in a way that she couldn't quite explain. There was something uncomfortable about him that nagged her from beneath the surface, trying to reveal an answer that she couldn't even be sure existed. Her instincts were often correct, and she had taken to trusting them immensely over the years, but she couldn't claim that Arian was lying to her without any solid evidence. 

Part of her wondered what someone who was sixteen had to hide, but then she remembered that she was no better than he was. If anything, she was even worse. 

Jay didn't object when her body tried to pull her into slumber. She hadn't eaten anything for dinner, but she didn't feel hungry enough to justify forcing herself out of the hotel to see if there was anything for her eat. All she wanted to do was wake up and have everything solve itself. Jay had spent so long waiting for something to make sense in her life, and even when she had found a goal to strive for after being alone for ages, it didn't slot together as she would have liked. Everything was just as confusing and aggravating to her as it had been when she was doing nothing day in and day out, praying for an end to the monotony. 

Jay fell asleep soon afterwards, the covers undisturbed beneath her. The mattress was serviceable, she supposed, but it was nothing like what she was used to back home. Then again, longing for home was utterly pointless as far as she could tell. There wasn't a way for her to return to those days, so she needed to stop thinking about it. 

Still, when she closed her eyes, she dreamed of family and what she would never have again. 

~~~~~

By the time that the pizzas had arrived at Luke's house, all six of the Clan Leaders were already stretched out on the living room floor. Daytime clothes had been swapped out for comfy nighttime counterparts, and the TV rattled mindlessly in the background to offer a little bit of white noise to the space. Luke shuffled out to the room before sitting down and distributing plates to each one of the teens. As hands reached for pieces of pizza, Luke leaned his neck back to stare at the ceiling. "So... Is there anything that we want to be aware of before tomorrow?" he questioned. 

"There's something that I was given before we left," Ocean declared. "I didn't notice until I got home, so I would probably say that it was Tuila. It seems that she had the feeling we would be curious about all of this, so she gave me a list of all the Hanilia factions and what they do. I think that's pretty helpful thing to have on hand."

"Then read it off to us," Lex suggested, taking a mighty bite from the piece of pizza in her hand. She chugged down half her water soon afterwards before wiping at her mouth with the back of her hand. 

Ocean nodded. "The first planet of Hyperion is Daragon, and its Hanilia are the Clan Leaders. We already know about what they do... You know, since that's us," she told the group. "So let's move onto Skylia next. The Skylian Mages are meant to look over Skylia, but that's where things get a bit more complicated... There hasn't really been a member of the Skylian Mages identified since the days of Lyloc. Nobody knows for sure who the others could be."

"That certainly makes our job a lot harder," Xia sighed with a shake of her head. "What are we supposed to do if we can't find the Skylian Mages?"

"I suppose we just press on with the rest of our searching," Gemini shrugged. "There's no point in stressing it right now anyways. What's the next group, Ocean?"

"From Regasys, there are the Spirit Guardians. The leader of the group is decided differently than most other groups. It's a hereditary position passed through the monarchy of the planet, but... This note seems to think that it's going to be a lot harder to figure out who the leader of the Spirit Guardians is than we would think," Ocean replied. "They come from Earth the same way that we do."

"So one of them is born in Hyperion while the others all come from around here," Jayler nodded to himself. "That's rather strange, but I suppose that we'll just have to figure out what to do about it in the future."

"Next up are the Angelic Watchers of Quyatil. Again, they come from Earth, and the current generation is unknown," Ocean told the rest of the group. "The same applies to Brashi's Dark Guardians. The inner five planets mostly have Hanilia who come from Earth while the reverse applies to the outer five planets. Still, it doesn't seem like any members of those inner five groups have been identified aside from us. It certainly makes our jobs more frustrating."

"Then... All we can really do is figure out what we can do about the outer five planets," Luke suggested. "We already have the Draconic Superiors together, so that has to count for something, right?"

"I believe so... But this is where things get harder," Ocean frowned. "You see, the inner five planets all have members of the group who possess multiple elements. There are fewer of them since the elemental distribution is across a smaller group. The outer planets have larger parties, and each of them have one element. That's how the Draconic Superiors are structured, for example."

"It'll be easier to find a member of these groups, but we'll struggle more to actually get all of them together... That's what you're trying to say here, right?" Xia questioned. 

Ocean nodded. "Exactly. We might have the Draconic Superiors together, but this is where things get complicated... On one hand, the Draconic Superiors are already working with us, and we know that all of the Fearbringers are alright with allying with us. They're another group in this outer five... However, you also have the Skylox Heroes, who were wiped out a while ago. It's hard to say if any of them are even alive at this point, and if they are, chances are they don't know about being Hanilia, so that will make them even harder to find," she explained. 

"In exchange for the Draconic Superiors, we're going to need to figure out how to manage the Skylox Heroes, a group that makes absolutely no sense at the moment... And then we need to figure out where the Fearbringers disappeared off to in the aftermath of the war. Sounds like we've got a lot to take care of already involving these outer groups," Gemini remarked. 

"The other two groups are known as the Portal Protectors and the Moon Sages. The first group is responsible for maintaining the Portal that keeps magic inside of Hyperion. The Moon Sages look after the various moons of the planets. According to Tuila, some people actually do live on the moons, but the civilizations there are far smaller since the planets themselves are far larger," Ocean declared. 

"So this is a lot harder than they were trying to make it seem during the meeting," Lex sighed. "I suppose it means that they have a degree of trust in us since they're willing to give us such a huge mission, but... Who can say if we'll even be able to get one of these groups to come out of the shadows? There has to be a reason for the Fearbringers disappearing so suddenly after the war came to a close, and it's not as if we know where they've been hiding out."

"We'll have to figure that out along the way, I suppose," Luke frowned. "We'll get to it later on, I guess... Is there anything that you guys have to say on the matter?"

"I don't think so," Jayler eventually said. "All we can really do is put all of this into motion and pray that it goes our way. Maybe the Draconic Superiors will have a few extra clues for us on where to find different members of these groups. I don't know if they'd want to give us that information when we were about to leave, but... They could tell us tomorrow when we arrive back in Hyperion."

"All we can do is wait and see what they've got for us then," Lex commented. "Until then, I want to know what Jayler's been thinking about."

All attention shifted over to him in an instant, and Jayler stared at the rest of his team with wide eyes, unable to properly form words under their attention. He sputtered for a moment before letting out a sigh as Lex kept talking. 

"Look at him!" Lex exclaimed, pointing her pizza in his direction for emphasis. "He's clearly thinking about something. He's had this faraway look in his eyes ever since he got here. If there's really nothing else for us to think about regarding Hyperion, then let's ask him what's been nagging at him... But I don't think that we really need to ask as much as we need to guess since it seems pretty obvious what's going on."

Jayler let out a sigh and shook his head. "Okay, you caught me," he murmured. "I've been thinking about the Silver Knight again. Now that we're back in Hyperion, I can't help but want to look around and see if there's a way for me to reunite with her. I haven't spoken to her since the war ended, and it's really starting to bother me. I'm sure that she's out there somewhere, but... I want to find her as soon as possible."

"That's understandable," Ocean assured him. "After all, she did drop a huge bombshell on you before you parted ways, and even if she promised to meet up with you again... Sitting on that sort of information for so long was bound to make you antsy."

"I want to find her too," Luke admitted. "I want to try and understand why she isn't a Clan Leader. By all definition, she really should be. If she's your twin, then that means that the group should have grown to be seven people rather than just six. The reincarnation cycle has the team growing by one member if the spirit of a Clan Leader reincarnates into twins or triplets, after all... She should be one of us, and yet, she isn't... I really do have to wonder what's going on there."

"We've all got our reasons to try and see her again then," Gemini frowned. "I'm sure that we'll cross paths with her at some point, but I certainly understand Jayler's eager anticipation regarding seeing her again."

"I just... I wish that I got the chance to get to know her better. She's my sister, and if we were in any other timeline, we probably would have grown up together. It bothers me that it's been so long since I had the chance to reach out to her. I know it'll probably take some time to spread the news that we were back on Daragon today, but I want her to hear about it and come out of hiding at long last. I want to know what she's been up to all this time, and if I can help her with it, that would be even better," Jayler told the group. 

"We understand that," Lex assured him. "Don't worry. I'm sure that you're going to get the chance to see her sooner or later, and when you do, everything is going to be fine. We're going to be here for you ever step of the way, and that's not going to change anytime soon. Doesn't that sound like a lovely little deal to have going on?"

Jayler grinned and nodded. "Yeah, it does... Thanks for this, guys," he said quietly, looking to the ground. "It's going to be weird having the ability to go back and forth between Hyperion and Earth after we were so used to spending all our time on one side or the other of the Portal. Still, I'm hoping that everything will come together in a great way in the end. There's a lot of cool stuff for us to do over there, after all."

"Including decorating a castle," grinned Xia. "Think about it! We're going to be able to renovate that place however we want. It's going to be a pretty important place from here on out, so we've got to make sure that it's in good condition for everyone who comes through. Imagine how great it could be. Maybe it'll wind up being like a new version of the hideout from when the war on Daragon was going on."

"I know I'm going to prefer the castle already," Gemini snorted. "As much as I loved the hideout, I did not love the fact that it was underground. I could certainly use a bit of extra fresh air above the ground after all the time we spent in the hideout."

"It works out for everyone... Plus, if the castle is large enough, we might get a designated space for our group," Luke pointed out. "I think that would be a good idea if we wind up having enough room. We could give each of the Hanilia factions a designated area to hang out when nothing is going on, and that would encourage unity among the teams that are still going to be getting to know each other. After all, we know for sure that not all of the Hanilia factions are as tightly-knit as we are."

"That's true... Of course, we should probably wait on deciding all of that until after we've gotten the chance to look around the area," Ocean pointed out. "We don't want to get our hopes up only for them to be crushed in the end. There's a lot for us to take care of, and I don't think that we should add destroyed dreams to the list of things for us to contend with."

Jayler couldn't help but laugh at Ocean's words. "Chances are you have a point... Still, I guess we're all in a good mood now. Even if we're relying on Tuila's help, we're going to be able to move back and forth between the two worlds whenever we want. That sounds like an absolute dream, and I know that we're all going to enjoy it."

"Maybe we could convince Tuila to help us to learn how to pass through the Portal on our own," Lex suggested. "That would cut out the middleman and give us the chance to be a bit more independent. Imagine the possibilities there... Then again, I suppose that all depends on if our magic is even strong enough to allow us to move through the Portal. I can't really do all that much here on Earth unless I really focus, and even then, I still feel like it's going to fall apart the second I stop concentrating."

"Me too," Ocean murmured. "No matter how many times I summon little spheres of light, they always disappear the instant I stop focusing... We're just going to have to get stronger then. There's not any conflict on the planets right now as far as we can tell, so that gives us the time we need to train and improve ourselves outside of battles where we're fighting for our lives. That sounds rather nice, wouldn't you agree?"

Everyone else in the circle nodded before Xia spoke up. "This is giving us a lot to think about, I suppose... But I don't think there's anything for us to do about it right now. I mean, we don't have enough information to start planning, and Ocean already gave us all the details found on the paper Tuila passed off to her. Maybe we should take this as a chance to kick back and relax," she suggested. 

Luke looked over to the television screen nearby with a smile. "We could always turn on a movie if we wanted to... That could be a nice bonding experience, right?" he suggested. 

Murmurs of agreement were shared between the members of the team, and Luke got to his feet before picking up a stack of empty DVD boxes off the table the TV was sitting on. He set it down at the center of the circle before gesturing to it. "Take your pick."

Jayler couldn't help but smile as they decided on a movie to watch. He could already tell that the rest of the night was going to be tons of fun, and he couldn't wait to see what came next. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how I got this update done I literally stayed up all night oops
> 
> -Digital


	7. Chapter Six: Frozen in Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jay and Arian search through Nadia for clues regarding Lyloc.

The sun climbed over the horizon the following morning with a sense of uncertainty, and Jay was hardly sure if she really wanted to face the day if the sky wasn't even prepared for her presence. She had to practically pry herself free of the covers within her bed at the hotel near Nadia, and her legs were unsteady and shaky beneath her. Even before she had seen Arian, Jay was filled with uncertainty, and all she wanted to do was backpedal as far away from the remains of the city as possible. It wasn't as if she was going there by choice; Jay had only suggested it because they were out of damn leads on how to get Lana to allow them into the City of Steel. 

If Lana had connections to Lyloc, maybe there would be something of note in the last place that Lyloc's forces had fought before everything fell apart. Jay loathed the idea of returning to the area more than she could ever hope to describe, but she went anyways. Her feet shuffled along the floor as she went through her morning routine within the hotel room, and her stomach was firmly knotted at the core of her body. Even before leaving the building, she felt as if going to Nadia was going to make her feel sick. Just to confirm this, a headache pounded at the edges of her mind, leaving her nauseous before she got anywhere near her destination for the day's informational search. 

When Jay did finally leave her room, it was to walk into the hallway. Arian wasn't out there yet, but it only took him a handful of minutes to arrive. He smiled sheepishly as soon as he realized that he had taken longer than she had, and she let out a small huff at his actions. It did nothing to calm the way her skull seemed to be slamming against the rest of her body, but it was a small distraction, and Jay wanted to be distracted for as much of the following day as humanly possible. The last thing she wanted to deal with involving Nadia was the past, and she knew that it would pester her mercilessly if she didn't try to block it out. 

But was that even an option for her? She and Arian had come to the remains of Nadia because they were searching for information, and they couldn't just ignore that need if she decided that she wanted to back out. Arian was counting on her, and they had a duty to fulfill. Jay knew that she couldn't keep running away from the past forever, but she wanted to try more desperately than she could ever hope to describe. If she ran from the past, she didn't have to think about how sick it made her to think about. She couldn't let the guilt and grief sink in if she never stopped moving, and she could block it out at least slightly by distracting herself when she felt as if she was slipping into one of her worse days. 

The hotel's doors loomed ominously in Jay's peripheral vision the entire time she and Arian were eating breakfast. She wasn't hungry in the slightest, and she only grabbed food from the hotel's morning buffet because she knew that she was going to need the energy. In truth, she felt as if anything she ate was only going to make her feel sick, but Lyloc's wishes didn't care all that much what she thought or felt. There was work to be done, and Jay always took care of her duties before allowing personal reservations to get in the way. If she broke that rule to herself, she knew that she would fall apart. 

It was a while after Arian had finished eating and they had left the hotel behind when the silence that covered the two was broken. Arian had shoved his hands in his pockets, walking a few feet away from Jay to give her as much space as possible. She was thankful for such, as the brightness of his yellow hair was already making her headache worse. Everything seemed to be covered in dark fog in the back of her mind, a hazy cycle of images that constantly spun with angry ferocity, but his hair was the only thing that seemed to be in color properly. Looking at him for too long only made her feel as if she was going to be sick all over again. 

"Are you okay?" Arian eventually asked, and Jay tried to hide the way that she jumped at his words. She hadn't been expecting to hear him speak, but she was prepared when he continued. "You've been so quiet ever since we arrived in this area, and I'm starting to get worried about you."

_Lie._

Jay wasn't able to trust Arian with such sensitive information quite yet. She was going to have to get to know him a hell of a lot better before she even considered speaking to him about everything on her mind in that moment. Even then, who could say if she would ever find him to be a good person to reveal the truth to? For all she knew, she was going to be keeping this damn secret for the rest of her life, and Arian's gentle yet probing questions would never receive truthful answers. 

"Yeah," was all Jay could force herself to say, but it was more than enough. Was it just her, or had the air gotten colder? She could have sworn that it was trying to sting at her body actively, penetrating her clothing and fogging up her breath slightly. Her body was wracked with small shudders before she could say what was happening, and when she exhaled, her entire torso felt like it was about to collapse in on itself. What was with the sudden chill? Was it all in her mind, or was it actually real? Why couldn't she tell the difference? 

Jay and Arian finally stopped walking when they arrived at the border of what was once Nadia. Jay had to bite down on her lip firmly to keep from being sick at the sight of the city's remains, and she shivered once again. This time, Arian followed suit, and his hands gently wrapped around his upper arms. She hadn't been imagining the cold, it seemed. Somehow, that was almost more worrying to her than the idea that it had been fabricated by her exhausted mind as a way of distracting herself from how much she hated this stupid place. 

"Why is it so cold?" Arian asked under his breath, and when she stole a glance at him, Jay noticed that his teeth were chattering. Her stomach grew tense, and she feared as if she was on the verge of losing every piece of food that she had spent so much time forcing herself to eat. Her hand was on her sword in the blink of an eye, and she drew it with the familiar click of steel. The sound pierced her head, ringing in her ears mercilessly as she pleaded with the universe to have some damn mercy. There was only so much of this exhausting crap that she could take. 

Both of the teens looked around they area, attempting to find any signs of what was going on around them. Unfortunately, their wishes to grasp the truth fell flat, and nothing was revealed as the seconds crawled on. Jay's headache only grew worse, and she had to actively resist the urge to send one hand up to her temple as a way of nursing her aggravating migraine. She could feel a thousand questions forming on her tongue, but she was unable to allow any of them to manifest. 

Arian was glancing at the remains of the city from her side, and he suddenly threw out his arm to tap on Jay's left shoulder. He was wise enough to choose the arm that wasn't containing the sword, and it kept him from receiving an instinctive slash as her shoulders grew tense between fear and anxiety. Arian pointed off to the far right of the two, and a single figure could be seen standing in the area. 

Jay didn't realize how foggy the area was until she was given the chance to look in the distance, and she felt as if the air was starting to pull at every part of her body all of a sudden. When she exhaled, a puff of breath surrounded her lips, and she stared at it in silent bewilderment despite knowing that there was nothing she could do to stop it. Something about the situation was making her feel sick all over again.

The person in the distance only made Jay feel worse, and she hated that she didn't have an explanation as to why they were in Nadia. Nobody would come to what was left of the city of their own free will. It was a graveyard, a snapshot of history from the very moment that its people were killed in an explosive invasion. There was nothing to be proud of in the remains of Nadia, and nobody would want to go there. Jay suspected that she and Arian were some of the few people to actually travel past the crumbling city gates in the past few months. The idea that someone else would get the same idea at the same time made her mind scream that something was wrong. She had figure out who in the world that other person was. 

Jay took the first step forward, and Arian followed suit. The figure in the distance didn't move, and the two slowly closed the distance between themselves and the other new arrival. Jay's grip on her sword tightened, and she felt her mouth go dry against her own will. Everything felt as if it was falling apart, and her headache pounded its agreement. Nobody else should have been there. Hell, Jay wouldn't have even wanted to come to Nadia. They were there because they were running out of options, and she couldn't imagine that this new figure was at all related to their mission. 

The fog seemed to grow heavier the longer the two were in it, and Jay stopped walking about three yards away from the person. She could see them slightly better now, though that wasn't much of an accomplishment given the thick cloud of fog that hung over the area. All the while, the icy air bit at her skin, and she knew that the only thing keeping her from devolving into chattering shudders was her adrenaline. Arian wasn't so lucky, and he was staying far closer to her than he ever had before, and she didn't even bother to shake him away. 

The person was wearing all black, and their face was completely blank. Rather than containing regular features, all that Jay could see was a hazy mask of pale blue that glittered ominously in the limited light of the area. As far as she could tell, it had been created by magic to ensure that nobody saw who was behind the darkness. She hated the idea that someone who would come out to Nadia would have to hide their identity. Each moment of this day had seemed awful from the beginning, and yet, it continued to get worse against all odds. 

At first, Jay couldn't say for sure if the person had seen her or Arian. The figure stared at her, something she was able to put together even without seeing the eyes of the newcomer. Behind that blank mask, the gears were turning in their mind, and she wished that she had the ability to reach out and figure out what was going on. Still, she didn't think that she would be able to no matter how much she wanted to. Every part of her mind was too dizzy to even bother attempting to read their mind. 

The stillness remained for far too long, and Jay could only hear her heart pounding in her chest with renewed vigor. The wind had come to a halt, leaving the area far too eerie for her tastes. Arian watched the figure from his place slightly behind her, and she could see the way his breath fogged into a cloud in front of his face. She let out an exhale, ready to try and do something if it would end the damn silence. There was only so much of this that she was able to take. 

She was cut off before she could get anywhere close to making peace. The person shoved one arm forward, and icy magic exploded forth from their palm. Jay threw up her sword as a final defense, and the blow reflected off the side of her blade. She was surprised by the force of the attack, and her shoes dug into the ground as she was forced backwards slightly. Arian clung to her shoulder to keep from being blown away. The freezing wind kicked up once again, and Jay could feel the cold seeping into her bones no matter how much she desperately tried to keep warm. 

As soon as the icy attack disappeared into the sky, never to be seen again, Arian lunged forward. He had come to the same conclusion that Jay had. This new arrival was intent on engaging in a fight with them, and there wasn't going to be a way for them to weasel out of it. Jay watched as Arian summoned a sphere of purple energy to one hand before sending it flying. The enemy leaned off to the side, and the magic slammed into the stone remnants of a nearby building. The sudden blast from the attack made Jay frown. She never would have expected Arian to have so much raw strength. Where had he gotten so much power from?

Still, she didn't have the chance to ask any further questions of her mind. The figure jumped towards her, icy fingers outstretched. She blocked their grip with her sword before lashing out with one leg, attempting to sweep their legs out from beneath them. They jumped backwards just before she had the chance, and a hiss forced its way through her lips involuntarily. The icy grasp of her enemy had started to freeze over her sword, and the freezing blue magic was spreading across the surface of the blade far faster than she was comfortable with. 

Jay closed her eyes and focused on summoning as much heat as possible. Red energy kicked up around her feet, and the ice on the sword fell away soon afterwards. Ineffective droplets of water splashed into the dusty dirt, and she focused her attention on the newcomer as the fight began anew. Arian shot her an expression of surprise through his peripheral vision before settling his attention back into the battle. She knew that she was going to have to explain it to him later, and she hated that idea more than she would have cared to admit. 

The Ice mage rushed towards her soon afterward, and she ducked beneath a swipe from their frozen fist. She kicked out with her foot to try and sweep their legs out from under them, but it didn't work as she was planning when they proved to be far more balanced than she expected. Jay punched with her left hand, slamming it into the stomach of her opponent. This was more than enough to make them stumble backwards, and she was left glaring as they moved away from her. She couldn't help but clench her fist a bit tighter in response though, feeling cold seep in through her skin. 

Arian sent another explosion of purple magic towards the Ice mage, but they managed to avoid it by jumping backwards. Jay retreated as well, knowing that she was going to take too much damage from the blow if she didn't move. Arian cringed as dirt was kicked up all around them, and dust hung in the air heavily. Suddenly, it seemed as if they were fighting in the middle of a sandstorm rather than the foggy remains of an old city. 

Ice began spreading on the ground, and Jay jumped before creating a platform of purple energy beneath herself. Arian followed suit, though he was a bit too slow. His right foot was completely consumed by ice, and he hissed in pain as soon as he attempted to put weight on it once again. It was enough of a distraction to give their foe the chance to sent a column of energy at Arian, and the blonde boy was barely able to toss his left arm up. He formed a shield at the last moment, and he was forced to slide backwards by a few inches as soon as the attack made contact with his barrier. 

Jay raised her sword and jumped towards her foe, adrenaline rushing through her body. She slashed firmly at their shoulder, but they blocked it by putting up their right arm. Jay quickly followed up with the attack with a series of other quick slashes, hoping that at least one of them was going to make contact with her foe. The Ice mage attempted to dodge each attack, but there was only so much that they were capable of pulling off. Jay's expertise with a blade was starting to make escaping unscathed impossible. 

A cut opened the Ice mage's side, and blood began to spill over from the light slash. It wasn't deep enough to do significant damage, but a growl left their lips regardless. They made another lunge for her, but she was able to dodge by ducking below and to the right. The ground was still icy, and Jay was only able to remain on the dirt for a few precious seconds before ice began to spread against the lower half of her body. Once again, red energy formed around her body to chase the freezing temperatures away. 

The passionate crimson continued to surround Jay in the seconds that followed, and she rushed towards the Ice mage with her shoulder leading the charge. The ice on the ground stopped spreading as soon as she made contact with her foe, and the frozen water at her feet dissipated not long afterwards. The figure in black fell backwards, attempting to lessen the pain from their various injuries. 

As soon as there was an opening though, Arian unleashed another blast of purple energy, and it hit the hooded figure square in the chest. They created a shield made of ice to surround themselves as soon as they had recovered, but it was clear that they were still frazzled. 

All of a sudden, the air seemed to grow even colder than before, and the frozen fog began sticking to Jay's skin with an unexpected ferocity. She was shuddering before she knew it, and Arian wasn't doing much better. She attempted to move towards her foe, but she was unable to move quickly enough to act before the Ice mage broke free of their frozen shield less than half a minute later. 

The Ice mage examined both Jay and Arian with a frown. Stress was visible in their posture, and sweat was beading on their forehead despite how chilled the air was. "You got lucky," they snarled. "The next time that we cross paths, you won't be so fortunate. My mercy has run dry, and all those who cross me will face the consequences." Their voice was unrecognizable, clearly being distorted and changed through the use of magic. 

Jay opened her mouth to say something, though she wasn't quite sure what she could even declare at a time like this. Despite her attempts to speak though, she wasn't able to push the words out, and she could feel the cold getting worse around her despite the fiery red energy that surrounded her. Arian somehow seemed to be doing worse, having given up on speaking entirely in favor of chattering his teeth together. 

The air was heavy, and the remains of Nadia had fallen completely silent when the Ice mage shook their head and relaxed their shoulders. A rift appeared around their feet, and when it disappeared, they had vanished through it. The fog in the area lessened immediately, and the chill of the air began to subside. Even so, it was far too cold for Jay to be comfortable, and she couldn't summon any magic to break herself free of her frozen state. 

Arian wasn't doing any better, and he remained still as could be for the next few minutes. Each second passed at an agonizingly slow pace, and Jay would have been frustrated if she could muster the energy. She concentrated on pinpointing the places where the ice was falling away, and the sound of dripping water became customary to her ears as the barrier her body was encased in began to melt. The sound drilled into her skull, and she could feel her head starting to throb. The battle had given her enough of a distraction to ignore the pain, but that wasn't possible anymore given how quickly her adrenaline had retreated after the Ice mage disappeared from the scene. 

After what felt like an eternity, both Jay and Arian had full control of themselves again. They had only been stuck in place for a few minutes, but time seemed to distort and twist around them between the vanishing fog and depressing remains of Nadia surrounding them on all sides. Jay flexed her fingers, wincing at the tingling sensation that shot through her arm immediately. Arian did the same from a few feet away, though he kept on sending her glances of curiosity, seemingly wondering if she knew what they were going to be doing next. 

Jay didn't have a damn clue, but she wanted to get away from there. Coming to Nadia on a good day was an awful idea, but she never wanted to look at the place again after seeing the Ice mage there. When Arian finally stopped hiding how much he wanted to plead for answers, she let out a sigh and shook her head. He watched her with measured concern, and for a moment, Jay saw him stripped down to what he was deep down: a young man struggling through adolescence with only the battlefield as his guide. It terrified her how much she knew she looked just like him. 

However, she chose not to voice any of this, perhaps out of a fear of looking strange if she tried. The thought was haunting either way, and when the cold sunk in this time, it had nothing to do with the chill in the air. "Let's go," Jay muttered instead. She started walking towards the entrance of the city, concentrating on the gentle sound her footsteps made rather than the throbbing in the back of her head. All she wanted to do was collapse and go back to sleep. Coming to Nadia had been a mistake, and she couldn't help but wish that she had never come back to the city in the first place. It only seemed to be capable of hurting her, and there was only so much she was able to stand at once. 

Arian watched her silently, his expression a turbulent mix of fear, anxiety, and confusion. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, suddenly looking far more exhausted than he had a moment ago. He trailed after her, though his steps were little more than gentle shuffles. He didn't have the energy to pick his feet off the ground fully, and the dead grass and dirt below were all too happy to receive the noise. 

Jay bit down on her lip and watched the ground in front of her feet as her grip tightened on her sword. She never wanted to come back to Nadia, and she wasn't going to be making this foolish mistake ever again. 

~~~~~

Colt originally didn't have the slightest clue what he was supposed to be searching for, but everything became crystal clear as soon as the signal appeared on his radar. He had practically flung himself across Skylia to arrive in the remains of Nadia. The grass crunched underfoot as the fog attempted to swallow him, but he didn't care in the slightest, placing his goggles over his head and slashing at the air around himself with one arm. 

This was far from being his first time in what was left of Nadia. It was a suspicious site, and such had been the case ever since the strange icy fog began to roll in. Colt had tried to find the cause behind it before, but all of his attempts to grapple for the truth ended in failure. It was frustrating, yes, but there was nothing he could do about it. As curious as he was, he wasn't going to make himself do extra work to find the truth. There was more than enough on his plate as it was, and the workload constantly heaped on his shoulders wasn't going to be getting any lighter. 

Colt wasn't bothered at all by the cold. In fact, he seemed to rather enjoy it. Rather than stifling his every action, it seemed eager to embrace him in a gentle hug. Colt walked through the city's remains as the fog continued to swirl in every direction around him. Something about the area was off to him, but he couldn't quite put a finger on what could have been wrong. 

He had picked up on an immensely powerful magical signal earlier that morning, and it was what had spurred his journey to Nadia in the first place. He couldn't say for sure who or what it could have been, but that was what he was there to find out. There was a lot at stake for his current mission, and he couldn't afford to slip up. 

The objective was for him to figure out who a mysterious figure wandering around Skylia was behind the mask. He had been searching for far too long, and it was starting to aggravate him in ways he never thought possible. All he wanted was to figure out what was going on so that he could call it a day and leave this crap behind. 

Colt leaned over when he noticed footprints in the dirt. There appeared to have been multiple people on the scene, something he observed as he compared the foot sizes around the area. He couldn't fathom why multiple people would ever want to come to Nadia, but he wasn't entirely interested in hearing the answer either. All he really wanted to do was find out who his target was so that action could be taken to keep the planet from falling into chaos. He was sick of all the silent yet problematic actions his foe had taken across the realm. 

As his fingers sifted through the brown grains, Colt let out a heavy sigh. He was better than this, damn it. He was talented in spy work, something he had learned from the very beginning. His magic allowed him to blend into the shadows seamlessly, and nobody ever saw him unless he wanted them to. Still, that didn't mean that he wasn't allowed to want more, and he desperately wanted to find a way out. He was sick of being used for the abilities that were completely out of control. He hadn't asked for any of this, and yet, there he was. 

One of these days, Colt was going to find a way out. He was positive to figure out how to escape. He was tired of late nights and headaches that never seemed to quit. His work was isolating and thankless. Even if Colt was rarely fond of others, it didn't matter much to him at the end of the day. He was upset because of how deprived he was of speaking to others, and it was far from being of his own will. This had been decided as his fate from before he was even brought to life. 

Colt let out a heavy sigh as he rose to his feet, shaking his head and pulling his goggles up to rest on his forehead. All that he could pick up on was that the person he was after had been there at some point, but such a conclusion didn't help him much in the long run. Colt was far from having the abilities of a tracker. He could gather information, but he lacked the skills to pull everything together well enough to chase after the person causing him so much grief. If he had that power, he would have finished this mission ages ago and gone onto the next aggravating piece of work. 

Still, his skills as an analyst were incredibly helpful in their own ways. For example, he was starting to pick up on just what he was dealing with. The icy fog around him was unnatural and heavy, clearly brought on by a powerful type of magic. Energy this strong scarcely existed, and he had never come across a mage with this much raw power. Even when he met the Draconic Superiors years prior, he never sensed such immense strength, and the Draconic Superiors were some of the most powerful mages in Hyperion. 

There was only one possibility that Colt could think of for what the person could have been, and it made him want to punch something. It shouldn't have even been possible, but he was fully aware of what had happened with Mersall. With that in mind, there were no doubts, and Colt couldn't help but shake his head in disproval at what he knew he was going to have to do as soon as he caught up with his target. 

He was going to have to fight against the Lakinya of Ice. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Digimon and cookies??? Winning combination
> 
> -Digital


	8. Chapter Seven: Cleanse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Clan Leaders begin their work on the abandoned castle. Meanwhile, Jay and Arian receive a letter from an unexpected sender.

The morning after the group's meeting at Luke's house, Jayler rose early. He scarcely woke up before he had to, but he couldn't keep himself asleep no matter how much he tried. Judging by the way Lex was bouncing around the area, she was just as excited as he was. Luke's father was already gone for work the following morning by the time they woke up, leaving all six of the Clan Leaders to wander around Luke's kitchen to find food. They spent about forty-five minutes in the house after they woke up, and all of them were on the edge of their seats out of anticipation. 

Jayler was practically buzzing with activity by the time they had gotten the chance to leave the house. He couldn't keep himself still as the group started walking to find a secluded area. Even as they set a course for an area far from Luke's residential space, Jayler felt as if his insides were vibrating around wildly. The aim was for them to avoid the residential area where they had spent the night to keep any random civilians from seeing something they shouldn't have. Jayler couldn't wait to learn how to use Portal magic, to say the least, so that finding a place to meet with Tuila wouldn't be a concern. He would have loved to be able to flash over to Hyperion without any issues alongside the rest of the group, and he couldn't stop smiling brightly as soon as the idea settled in his head. Xia looked over at him with her eyebrow quirked upwards, but she didn't inquire about what had him so excited. After all, she understood it far better than she was willing to admit. 

The final destination of the group wound up being a park on the road outside Luke's neighborhood. Jayler let out a small breath of finality once they had stopped walking, seeing the puff of air fly out in front of himself. He knew that Tuila was going to be there soon. She was far too prepared for every situation to not be aware of what was to come. 

Nobody dared to say a word until the wind whispered and dawn's light shone through the trees in the perfect way. Jayler wasn't sure when Tuila had appeared, but he knew that she was there, hearing her footsteps along the dulled grass. Everything about her presence demanded respect, and Jayler grinned up at her. Tuila looked down to the rest of the group, and she nodded firmly as a way of proving her acknowledgement. The Clan Leaders gathered around her, and Tuila closed her eyes. Light flared all around them, but the illumination was covered by the rising of the sun on the horizon. 

When the light died out, Jayler was standing somewhere new. The light overhead was coming from a sun that rested high in the sky, and Jayler looked up at it. The position of the star made it seem as if they were further along in the day than they had been on Earth. Jayler would have held up his hand to cover his eyes, but he didn't see much of a purpose to. When stepping away from the dawn of Earth, Jayler was beyond happy to embrace the beauty of midday sunshine. He closed his eyes and tilted his face skyward, a dreamy sigh escaping his lips. He knew that there were others watching him, but he didn't care in the slightest. He was sure that each of them felt the same way that he did, so why would he make an attempt to mask how happy he was to be back? It was only the second day they were back, after all, so he was still allowed to enjoy how incredible Hyperion was. 

Jayler didn't fully recognize where he was on Skylia until after he had opened his eyes again. He glanced around and realized that he and the rest of the Clan Leaders were standing in front of a large castle, finding a strange home in between the massive, impressive structure and the rest of the town. Jayler couldn't figure out which of the areas he wanted to look at first, but he eventually decided on the town. 

Something around the town felt both closer and further away. There were people moving around, but none of them seemed to fully register that Jayler, Tuila, and the rest of the Clan Leaders had arrived. He watched as they continued about their days, wondering what all of them were up to. Were they simply choosing to ignore the castle? If so, why? 

Jayler turned around to stare at the palace next, and he immediately felt something inside him contract. Much like the town, the castle felt censored somehow. The outside should have been vibrant and beautiful, standing out as a beacon against the rest of the town, but it instead seemed gentle. Passive calmness didn't fit the palace in the slightest as far as Jayler was concerned, and to him, it felt as if the castle had been covered in a layer of dust, but that wasn't even enough to fully explain the sensation that overcame him. 

The memory of the castle appeared to be what was covered in the dust. The people of the nearby town were ignoring it, pressing on with their regular lives as if the large building didn't exist. Even if they were used to its presence, one would have expected them to admire it at least every once in a while, but no eyes ever moved from daily tasks to gaze upon the palace. The mere idea of the castle seemed to be bringing pain to the people of the town, so they did what humans were good at, choosing to pretend that the issue didn't exist while wandering around with merry smiles that didn't fit the situation in the slightest. Despite only being a few yards apart, the town and the castle felt as if they were placed in different worlds, if not different universes entirely. 

Tuila, on the other hand, was more than happy to acknowledge the presence of the palace, gesturing for the Clan Leaders to trail after her into the building. Jayler hesitated for a moment, looking out to the people who lived in blissful ignorance, the choice of pretending that everything was fine, before shuffling his feet after Tuila. Somehow, seeing the peculiar shift between worlds before his very eyes managed to dampen Jayler's spirit, but he grounded himself by watching the way Tuila's hair swished behind her in a rhythmic pattern, beautiful and treasured in its simplicity. 

The entrance to the castle was large, and the doors towered above Jayler by what felt like ten feet. Lex had to crane her neck backwards to see each part of the door, and her jaw dropped in awe. Ocean was far more apprehensive, and the contrast between the expressions of the two made Jayler think of the line between joy and caution that had been drawn in the sand between the town and the castle. He forced himself to look away as Tuila pressed her hands against the door. The hinges of the building squeaked noisily, piercing through Jayler's thoughts like an arrow flying toward a target. He watched carefully, wondering what could be waiting behind the door. Deep down, he knew it was only going to be dust, but he was still intent on spreading the optimism that ran through him the same as blood. 

Once he was inside the castle, the first thing Jayler did was sneeze. Lex followed suit a few seconds later, and Luke was third. Ocean, Xia, and Gemini were lucky enough to not fall victim to the dust particles floating in the air, and Jayler briefly envied them before he managed to let out a sigh and shake his head. 

"My apologies," Tuila murmured, holding up one hand. A small spell was conjured soon afterwards, and the dust in the room began to disappear. Still, Jayler felt as if its impact lingered for far longer, and he cringed upon realizing that it did little to brighten up the dulled area. He wondered how long it had been sitting there blankly, waiting for someone to use it, before shaking his head and deciding he wasn't to indulge such thoughts. He had more important business to think about, after all. 

"This is the place, huh?" Xia questioned, taking a small step forward as she examined each nook and cranny of the entryway from afar. When Tuila nodded, Xia grinned to herself. "I'm sure that we can make a place like this work. If the outside is any indication, it's absolutely huge."

"Nobody seemed to be paying attention to it," Jayler remarked with a small frown. "Did anybody else notice that? It bothers me how everyone in the nearby town was just going about their business as if the castle didn't exist. I know that they're used to seeing it here, but it felt like it was something deeper than that." When the Clan Leaders gave him quizzical looks, he let out a sigh and shook his head. "You know what? Forget it."

"That makes sense, actually," Tuila cut in. "None of them really want to acknowledge what happened here not that long ago. When the Skylox Heroes fell, they lost their primary source of protection. Nobody is willing to pay attention to the problem since they're trying to pretend it doesn't exist. If they keep on going about their daily lives, then they can't be hurt by the loss of the Skylox Heroes. That's what their thought process appears to be, anyways. Of course, we already know how ineffective that way of thinking is. The war on Daragon didn't stop just because people didn't look at the problem and address it as what it was."

"Yeah. The princess was more than happy to continue living her life as if nothing was happening, but the rest of the planet was suffering," Luke recalled. "But the war was still going on, and she couldn't change that at all. I wouldn't expect to see that here though... Then again, I suppose that all sorts of people can have an issue with denial."

"We're occupying this space because we need the room. I doubt any of them are going to get upset with us for coming back into the castle given that they've been ignoring it ever since it was left empty and abandoned in the aftermath of the Battle of Nadia. If they want to keep on ignoring the truth of the matter, that the Skylox Heroes are gone and they're incredibly vulnerable, fine. We'll simply have to protect them ourselves," Tuila explained. 

Jayler nodded his understanding softly, but his lips remained pressed together tightly with dissatisfaction. He didn't know how anyone could willingly turn a blind eye to such a glaring issue, but he wasn't going to be ignoring it. If something was really happening on Skylia, then he and the rest of the Clan Leaders were going to have to find out more about it. The Skylox Heroes weren't around to look after the people of the planet, so it was a job that was going to have to fall to the Hanilia of other planets the same way the Draconic Superiors had protected Daragon in the absence of the Clan Leaders. 

"We're going to try and figure out where the rest of the Hanilia fighters are, but it's going to be difficult," Gemini told Tuila. "In the meantime, I suppose we can go on and fix this place up. I feel as if there's a bit more for us to do than simply clear out the dust using magic. The problem seems to run a bit deeper than that."

Jayler couldn't help but nod his agreement. "Plus, we'll need to be ready to make accommodations for others as they join the castle. There's a lot for us to do before we can consider this place a fine base," he piped in. His gaze explored the room once again, and he couldn't help but frown. Even with sunlight streaking in through the prominent windows, the room felt dark and eerie, as if acknowledging it was a terrible idea. A shudder ran down his spine. 

If any of the other Clan Leaders shared his unease, they were hiding it masterfully. Jayler doubted that something was actually wrong with the castle, as the site wouldn't have been selected to act as a base if there was something notable that would have to be solved before they moved in. However, he was aware of the last people who had occupied the space, and knowing what had happened to them, it wasn't surprising that he felt suspicious when inside of the castle. 

"We should get to cleaning up," Xia declared, snapping Jayler out of his daze. "I definitely think that we're going to have to be careful about everything else in this space, and it might be for the best if we started trying to clean out the area as soon as possible. After all, it wouldn't do for us to finally pick out a Hanilia only for them to not want to come in here. First impressions are everything, you know."

"I'm going to send a few of the other Draconic Superiors over here to help you out when I get back to Daragon," Tuila explained. "This place is massive, and I feel as if you could use a few extra hands. The sooner we're ready to use this space, the sooner you'll be able to go out and find out more about the other Hanilia."

Jayler's heart skipped a beat in his chest, and he grinned at the idea. Even the ominous aura of the castle wasn't enough to keep him away from the idea of seeing the Silver Knight again. As soon as the castle was finished being cleaned, he would have the chance to investigate her whereabouts. Somehow, he was even more antsy about running into her again after talking about her with the rest of the Clan Leaders the night before, and he hadn't even realized that was possible. 

Tuila walked away from the area, undoubtedly preparing to move over to Daragon and snag any of the Draconic Superiors who wanted to help clean out the castle. Jayler watched her go before letting his hopeful grin spread in full. He knew that the rest of the group was watching him, but he couldn't be asked to care. He was sure that they understood what had him so excited, so he didn't bother to explain. 

He got to work on cleaning out the main area of the castle soon afterwards, and the rest of the group followed suit. Even while sifting through what had been left behind by the palace's previous owners, Jayler remained excited, wondering what would be waiting for him after the castle was ready for occupation. He grinned even more at the idea of the Silver Knight being there in the building by his side each day, and he wondered how long it would be until that vision became a reality. 

~~~~~

Jay hated the walk back to the hotel near Nadia's remains. Her feet barely wanted to move, and the sudden silence from Arian didn't help in the slightest. Still, they managed to return to the building, and that was all she could really ask for given how terrible her mood had become. Jay wanted nothing more than to hide in a corner and ignore the rest of the world, and she hadn't hit that low point in quite some time. The last time had been when--

Jay suddenly looked up when an arm shot out in front of her. She stopped walking when she saw that Arian had wanted her to come to a halt. There was a person standing between Jay, Arian, and the door to Jay's room at the hotel. Jay frowned immediately, burying any weakness that might have risen from the fight in Nadia as she observed the newcomer. 

It was a young woman covered in robotic pieces, and she reminded Jay of the guards who had been stationed at the City of Steel. The girl's expression was solemn and unreadable, and her fingers grasped firmly at a letter. She looked at both Jay and Arian with a frown before closing her eyes, and she looked as if she was contemplating something, though Jay couldn't say what it was for sure. 

When the girl was finished, she held out her hand with the letter. "This is for you," she explained simply. Arian hesitated before taking the envelope from her grasp. The girl turned on her heel and left soon afterwards. Jay watched her go, wondering what in the world was going on. 

Arian looked to Jay briefly before shrugging his shoulders loosely as a relaxed smile eased its way onto his features. Jay sighed and looked to the door of her room before walking inside. Arian trailed after her, and he shut the door behind himself before sitting down on the bed. Jay wasn't planning on joining him, but she hadn't realized just how much her limbs were screaming at her until she set her gaze upon the mattress. As soon as she sat down, every muscle began to relax, and she realized that she had likely been pushing herself too far. She cringed at the realization but managed to shove it aside as Arian fidgeted with the letter. 

"What are we supposed to do with this?" Arian asked after a moment of silence. He couldn't stop turning the paper over between his hands, and he seemed ready to break the seal even without Jay's agreement. 

"I guess we have to see what it says," Jay remarked. She didn't mention how the girl who delivered it looked as if she had come from the City of Steel, figuring that Arian had already caught onto such a realization. Part of her wondered if the girl had been sent by Lana somehow, though she knew there wasn't a way of proving that without opening the letter. 

Arian nodded, swallowing dryly as his finger slid underneath the edge of the envelope. He broke through the seal of the page, and Jay had to marvel at how intricate the wax holding the paper shut was. Whoever had sent the letter knew exactly what they were doing, and they intended to make a great first impression. 

Arian set the envelope off to the side before pulling a piece of folded paper from it. He got to work on unfurling the page, a small frown on his face. Arian instinctively scanned the page, but his gaze fell only on a small segment at the center of the paper. The rest of the page was blank of text. 

"'Come and visit me. I know who you are,'" Arian read aloud. His eyes went wide as realized who had signed the letter. "It says that it's from Lana Tarulum! We did it! Somehow, we were able to catch her attention!" 

Jay gasped in surprise and reached over to take the paper from him. Arian was more than happy to hand it over, too busy smiling excitedly to bother trying to look at it again. Jay read over the small handful of words a dozen times in the blink of an eye, unable to believe what she was seeing. She knew that it was real, but it didn't feel that way. She didn't even know what they had done to be worthy of Lana's attention. 

After all the research Jay and Arian had done, Jay had been sure that there was only one way for them to meet with Lana. She didn't even know what proving themselves to Lana was supposed to mean, but she was positive that they would have to figure it out. Could it be that they had managed to fulfill the task without even meaning to? What had they even done that was out of the ordinary?

Jay set the letter down and got to thinking. No matter how much she wracked her brain, she couldn't determine just what had convinced Lana that it would be a good idea to meet with them. All they had done that day was head to the remains of Nadia and fight that strange Ice mage. 

What if that was it? She didn't know who the Ice mage was supposed to be, but it seemed that they were far more important than she had been anticipating before. Jay let out a gasp at the realization, and her thoughts began to spin rapidly in her mind. The Ice mage's presence in Nadia was strange given how long the area had been abandoned for, and she was willing to guess that they went by there rather often given how easily they were able to manipulate the cold fog of what was left of the town. 

Still, why would anyone go to Nadia on a regular basis? She had hated the idea of visiting the place once, so the prospect of revisiting the region multiple days in a lifetime made her want to be sick. She didn't know who the Ice mage, but if Lana really wanted them to meet with her after they battled that mysterious figure, Jay was sure that they were important. What other explanation was there? 

"It has to be the Ice mage," Jay told Arian in an intense whisper. "Think about it. There aren't any other notable things that we've been involved with as of late. Somehow, she figured out about our fight in Nadia earlier today, and she wants us to come and see her to talk about it."

"Why would she want to hear more about that though?" Arian questioned. He was still smiling brightly, but as soon as he realized what Jay was saying, his grin began to slip until it had melted away completely a few seconds later. "You think that we're dealing with something far bigger than someone who just happened to get into a scrap with us in Nadia."

"We didn't provoke them at all. They attacked just because they could, and that's suspicious enough. When we factor in that Lana wants to speak with us now, only after we got into that battle... It's the only conclusion that I can come to. She has to know something about who that was, and we're going to have to figure out what it is. We have to go and see her," Jay insisted. 

"Should we go to the City of Steel now then?" Arian questioned. "I mean, there's nothing else for us to do around here, and I doubt that going back to Nadia would do us any good. We could run into that mage again, and even if we didn't, the city didn't seem to have any clues as to what we're supposed to be looking for."

Jay nodded her agreement. "I wish I could say what's going on here though... It's obvious that something unexpected is happening behind the scenes, but we have no way of identifying exactly what it is at the moment. We'll simply have to go and speak with Lana and hope that she has something that could help us out," she told him. 

"If she's calling us to see her, she has to know something... That's what I'm hoping for, anyways," Arian sighed. "For all we know, she simply thought that we fought well. I mean, we were beaten pretty easily, but we still managed to put up a good fight before we went down."

"Like I said earlier, we did nothing to provoke that mage. They simply attacked us out of the blue. That means there has to be something extra happening that we just aren't seeing yet. We didn't save any innocent people, learn new information, or do anything else that could be considered worthy of the 'attention of the gods'. We simply got into a battle with someone who we still can't identify. The fact that the battle happened at all is proof that something is going on here," Jay pointed out. 

"And if Lana noticed it, she must be aware of what exactly this extra something is," Arian murmured. "I see what you're talking about now... I don't know how much I'm looking forward being dragged into something potentially dangerous, but I don't think the universe is going to be asking for our permission on the matter. If we're supposed to be fighting against a source of great evil or something similar, we're just going to have to."

"Exactly," Jay confirmed with a nod. She got to her feet despite the way her body immediately objected. She stretched her arms above her head in an attempt to relieve some of the tension, welcoming the gentle pull of her muscles when she did so. "We should leave as soon as possible. We don't know if she's waiting for us right now, after all."

"If she was watching us during that fight, she must have a way of spying on people even from afar," Arian told her. "I'm sure that she wouldn't mind if we took a little break before going to see her... I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm going to lose it if I move around too much so soon after that last battle. I really need a few minutes to catch my breath before we get going again."

Jay was eager to go and see Lana, but she knew that Arian was right. Both of them were exhausted, and they wouldn't be able to properly pay attention to anything that Lana tried to tell them. They needed a few minutes to relax before launching themselves into the next task. 

She nodded her understanding before sitting back down, silently recognizing how much her body enjoyed the relief of being off her feet so soon after she got back up. Jay leaned herself against the bed and closed her eyes, surprising herself by how willing she was to display weakness in front of Arian. Normally, Jay was far from being a trusting person, doing what she had to in order to keep people at bay until she was positive they were worthy of her faith. Still, her issues with trust couldn't keep her eyes open as the cold from the fight in Nadia threatened to sink into every part of her body. 

Jay also didn't move when Arian leaned back against the bed beside her. His room was just across the hall, but she could see the exhaustion that had started to cloud over his regularly bold and optimistic eyes. He was just as tired as she was, and as soon as his moment of positivity and excitement regarding Lana wore off, he was left ready to collapse. She couldn't blame him in the slightest. 

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye even so, wondering what he was going to do next. If he was going to attack her, he would have already done it. She was safe. In all reality, she should have recognized that Arian wasn't going to hurt her quite some time ago, but Jay preferred to stay safe rather than sorry. After all, life could change in the span of a few seconds, sending everything falling apart. 

Arian's breathing evened out, and she realized that he had fallen asleep beside her. She watched him carefully, barely managing to keep her eyes open. Jay's mind was cast back to their earlier conversation regarding how old he was, and she remembered that they were both still sixteen. They were so young, and yet, there was so much going on that couldn't ever be described. 

Jay looked up at the ceiling for a moment before allowing her eyes to slip closed. She knew that she and Arian were the same age as many other children scattered across the planets, but it didn't seem that way. Both Jay and Arian seemed to understand some darkness that others would never dream of facing. Perhaps that was for the best. She didn't want anyone else to suffer under the weight of the past that threatened to suffocate her with each passing day. 

Nadia was a reminder of everything that she had dealt with in her sixteen years of life, and she couldn't help but wonder where it had all gone wrong. Less than a year before, she had been enjoying herself freely, having the time of her life as she navigated her way around a sword and grew up with countless people who loved her completely. She returned the affection with a wide smile, and regret didn't exist in her life. She was different from everyone else, yes, but it didn't seem that way. She had a family. 

But then it all crumbled. Jay had come to know pragmatism, fear, loneliness, and hatred. She didn't want anyone else to experience what she had, and she understood why she traveled alone all over again. Bringing that pain to others was something she simply couldn't afford to do. After all, she had thought she was safe before, and that had turned out terribly for her. 

Jay wondered what could have pushed Arian into a similar situation. Despite his hopeful eyes, Jay was left with questions about who he was beneath all of that. She wanted to know what was running through that head of his and why he had looked so damn terrified as soon as the idea of conflict arose. 

There was nothing she could do about it in that moment though, so Jay allowed herself to drift into slumber. When she fell asleep, she was forced into dreams of melancholy and agony, and she was thankful that Arian wasn't awake yet when she woke. After all, she didn't want to have to explain to him the reason behind her sorrow. She doubted she would ever be ready no matter how close they got. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter! Yay!
> 
> -Digital


	9. Chapter Eight: Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jay and Arian meet with Lana in the City of Steel.

Jay was of the opinion that it took far too long for her and Arian to drag themselves out of bed. However, she couldn't make herself think about getting up until after she had slept a bit more, and she was welcomed with her exhaustion starting to bleed into nothingness. After the night before, she needed some extra rest, and she had enjoyed it far more than she would have thought. 

Jay did have to admit that she had problems with nightmares while she was waiting for the time to arrive. She kept on waking up and staring at Arian with a frown on her face when terrors drifted behind her eyes. She was never loud enough to stir him from slumber, but she most certainly made herself feel terrible with her nasty dreams. 

Arian had been the first one to get up, and Jay had woken up to see him with lunch at his side and a smile on his face. He waved to her before having her sit down and eat with him, and she objected far less than she would have had she slept more. The meal was mostly silent, and Jay couldn't tell for sure if Arian had heard her dreaming of something awful. If he had, he was choosing to ignore it, perhaps for his comfort or her own. She wasn't even sure if she wanted the answer, and her stomach knotted at the idea of him bringing it up for what would surely be an intense, lengthy conversation. 

The two found themselves outside the City of Steel, staring up at the glass dome that surrounded the area. Jay felt her mouth go clammy, and she couldn't tell if it was because of nerves or since she was surrounded by desert sand on all sides and had gotten some on her tongue. Did it even really matter? 

Arian was the one to press the button to let them into the city while Jay held their invitation from Lana silently. Jay was barely paying attention as a pair of occupants from the city walked over to where they were waiting, and she only looked up when she heard the light hissing sound that indicated something new was happening compared to last time. 

When Jay did look up, she saw that a door had revealed itself in the glass. The outline was faint, but she was sure that it was showing itself because they had permission to be inside. She swallowed nervously, relieved when she didn't taste sand, before reaching out towards the door. She pulled away when the door slid into the glass nearby, allowing for her and Arian to walk inside without any issues. He let her go in first before taking up the rear. 

The nearby occupants of the city utilized the function to shut the door once again after they had gotten inside, and Jay heard the hissing sound once more when she had fully stepped into the city. She sighed to herself before tilting her face to the sky. The City of Steel was somehow even more impressive on the inside compared to the outside, and that was certainly saying something given how incredible it already was. 

Jay didn't give herself time to marvel at the sight though, instead choosing to trail after Arian deeper into the city. The city's guards who had let them inside guided them through the streets of the city, and Jay glanced around at the tall buildings with her lips pressed together firmly. Arian seemed to be just as impressed as she was, but he was hiding it far better. Jay didn't even care about how she looked like she was staring at her surroundings, knowing that there were far more important matters that required her attention rather than caring what others thought about her. 

Soon enough, they arrived outside the largest building at the center of the city. Even with the glass dome, the building seemed to pierce the clouds somehow. Jay looked back at it while biting at her bottom lip nervously before taking a step forwards. The doors of the building slid apart to reveal a lobby. The room was mostly empty, but an elevator waited on the other side of the room. 

The guards left behind the pair as soon as they arrived in the lobby. Jay looked over to Arian, and he responded with a loose shrug before walking over to the elevator. He pressed a button on the side of the silver doors, and then the waiting started. 

"So... What do you think she's going to tell us?" Arian questioned, desperate to break through the silence that had fallen over the pair. He rocked back and forth between his toes and heels while tilting his head to the side as he looked at Jay. "I feel like we're getting closer to figuring out the truth. We already suspect that she's going to be telling us something about the Ice mage that we found when we were exploring Nadia, but I'm still curious about what's to come."

Jay shrugged to herself. "I'm not sure. The only way we're going to find out is to go and see her ourselves, and the elevator should be here any second for us to do that," she replied. 

As if on cute, the elevator doors slid apart to show a small chamber inside the wall. Jay stepped inside first, and Arian trailed after her, his feet dragging in a shuffle against the ground. Jay looked over to the side of the doors once they were inside the elevator, and she pressed against the button for the top floor. Light began to glow around the edge of the circular button, and the doors hummed as they began to shut. When the doors shut completely, the room began to move upwards, and Jay felt the shift beneath her feet. She couldn't tell if she was fully comfortable with it or not, but it wasn't as if she had much of a choice on the matter. 

The doors slowly opened when they arrived at the top floor, and both Jay and Arian stepped out slowly. Jay glanced around with a small frown, and she let out a sigh before closing her eyes. There was a lengthy hallway between the elevator and a room at the other side of the space. There was no doubt that Lana was located inside of that room, and Jay found herself wondering what she could expect. 

Her mind flashed back to the image of the girl in the picture who she didn't know. She wondered if Lana still looked the same, but it wasn't as if anyone would be able to tell her for sure. After all, Lana had taken to being rather reclusive since the end of the war against the Lakinya, enough so that she was erased from history completely. Jay had thought she understood what happened back in the days of the original Hanilia, and yet, there was Lana, defying all odds with a smile on her face. 

Jay's feet stopped moving unexpectedly in front of the room's entrance. She looked up at the doors before glancing over to Arian. He seemed just as uncertain as she was, but he still managed to make himself raise his hands. His palms pressed into the right door as he opened it, and Jay was left to deal with the left door. When put together, they were easily able to navigate through the threshold into the room. 

Jay frowned up at the woman on the other side of the space, recognizing her immediately as Lana. She looked a lot like the person she had seen in the picture, but somehow, Lana looked even more impressive in person. Her appearance hadn't shifted much in the many years since the days of Lyloc, but Jay still found herself latching onto the differences between the picture of Lana and the version she saw before her. 

Lana's hair was a chestnut color with hints of red to it. Her hair was long and tied into a ponytail at the back right segment of her head. A few strands fell down from her ponytail to frame her face. Her skin was tanned, and a few freckles dotted the bridge of her nose. Lana's eyes were a gleaming pine green, and a smile was developing in her irises. 

Lana's clothing was certainly what one would have expected from the leader of the City of Steel, to say the least. The base layer of fabric was black in color, and she was wearing silver armor above the darkness. The armor was beyond incredible, glimmering beautifully in the light that streamed in through the window behind Lana. She was sitting atop an ornate throne, and she both belonged in the space and didn't in a peculiar paradox. Her smile was far friendlier than one would have expected from a ruler of a city, but her posture screamed regality in every sense of the word. 

"You must be..." Arian began to murmur from Jay's side. When he spoke, Jay looked over to him, and she frowned to herself. Lana was undoubtedly going to be honest after going to all the effort of calling her and Arian there, but she still didn't know how to feel about the unique character before her. 

Lana had an ancient aura that Jay didn't know how to describe. Her gaze was that of a bold, innovative young woman, and Jay never would have expected her to be a fighter in a war many years ago simply looking at her from afar. Lana subverted her expectations by being so friendly and kind in appearance while still being covered from head to toe in silver armor. 

"Lana Tarulum," Lana finished for Arian, rising to her feet slowly. Jay realized that Lana was tall, but she didn't quite reach Jay's own impressive height. Instead, Lana settled in the space between Jay and Arian on the height scale, and her verticality made her a bit more threatening even if Jay was still taller than her. 

Jay was snapped out of her thoughts when Lana continued speaking. "And I know who you are. Jay and Arian... You've been called upon by Lyloc to gather the Skylian Mages," Lana went on, a smile on her face. "You think that I'm going to be able to supply you with new information, and that's what brought you here in the first place. Of course, you were turned away originally, but... That's since changed."

"You know about our mission?" Jay asked instinctively as nerves mounted in her stomach. Had Lana really been watching them since they started talking about their plan to follow Lyloc's lead? If that was the case, why hadn't Lana offered to speak with them the first time they came by the City of Steel? Why had they been turned away and forced to deal with the Ice mage in the remains of Nadia?

Lana nodded. "I do," she answered. "And I've got quite a bit to tell you about it, if you can believe it. I've got a lot of useful information, so I suggest that you prepare yourselves for a lengthy conversation. Feel free to make yourselves comfortable. We people in the City of Steel are known for hospitality."

Jay bit back a remark about how she wouldn't have guessed that after they had been turned away the first time. Instead, she watched as Lana snapped her fingers to create a pair of chairs that faced her throne. Jay slowly lowered herself into one of the seats, and Arian did the same from off to her right. Lana settled into her throne and took a deep, careful breath before tilting her head to the side with a gentle smile. Her hands folded together as she admired the newcomers. 

"What is it you wanted to talk to us about?" Arian questioned. "And why did you wait to invite us into the City of Steel? Was there a reason for that in particular?"

Lana pondered her words at first before answering. "My people are rather suspicious of newcomers. I didn't want to push them too far, so I decided to give you some space to prove yourselves first... Besides, I had a sneaking suspicion you were going to wind up heading to Nadia. I'd say that turned out well."

"Turned out well?" Arian echoed with a frown. "Are you talking about how we were attacked while we were there?"

Lana nodded. "In a sense, yes. I'm just glad that we were able to find new information because you went to Nadia. There's a lot of stuff that we figured out because of that fight, and I'm afraid that some of my worst fears have been confirmed," she told the pair. 

Jay felt her stomach sink, and she watched Lana carefully. "How about you start from the beginning? I get the feeling that there's more to all of this than simply wanting us to fight against that Ice mage in Nadia. You wouldn't have pushed us away the first time if you thought that it was for the best that you saw us immediately."

Lana hesitated before letting out a slow, heavy sigh. "It's a bit complicated, but... The short version is that I've been getting a bad feeling about the past few weeks. I believed that someone dangerous was roaming around, and I was picking up on their power readings from here. The City of Steel has advanced technology, and it allows me to detect strong signs of magic from anywhere on Skylia. I found something unexpected, and I figured that you were going to weed it out on your own, so I gave you the chance to draw that unknown person out of hiding. Thank you for doing that for me, by the way."

"The Ice mage is far more than just being a random person that we happened to run into by accident," Jay concluded firmly. "There's no way that a person who doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things would appear and attack us with such ferocity... What I want to know is what's going on with them and why they felt the need to go so far. You seem to have those answers, yes?"

Lana nodded. "I do, as a matter of fact... And I'm going to be giving them to you because of what I am. After all, I intend to follow you out of the City of Steel once we're finished with our meeting," she declared. A smile spread across her face. "There wouldn't be much of a point in me staying behind here, so..."

Jay let out a gasp as the pieces began to slip into place. She couldn't believe that she hadn't picked up on it before, and a frown appeared on her face. "I think I know what you're saying..." she murmured. She saw Arian looking at her quizzically, but Jay didn't bother to explain it. After all, he was bound to understand it in a matter of seconds. 

A wide grin spread across Lana's features, and she spread her arms wide. A circle formed around her, displaying five different types of magic: Air, Thunder, Storm, Physic, and Time. "Meet the first of the Skylian Mages," she declared before snapping her fingers shut. The magical energy vanished, and all that remained was her wide smile. 

"You're one of the Skylian Mages?" Arian gasped, his eyes going wide. "Wow... I was so sure that you were just going to be one of a few stepping stones for us to go through before we were able to actually hear about what was going on with them. It's a relief to hear otherwise, to say the least."

"The Skylian Mages were all personally selected by Lyloc, the last of the original Hanilia. Most other Hanilia factions use reincarnation, but the Skylian Mages are something a bit different. Instead, we were all chosen by Lyloc whether we're aware of it or not. Of course, there are only a few of us, so we're incredibly difficult to track down, but... The point still stands. On top of that, I believe that most of us are immortal, so that only makes us stranger, wouldn't you say?" Lana questioned with a grin. 

"That would make sense," Jay murmured. "After all, there have only been a few Skylian Mages over the past centuries, so you must have been around for quite some time... Do you know for sure how many Skylian Mages there are?"

Lana shrugged. "To be honest, I'm not sure, as I haven't been in contact with Lyloc for a long time. She was the to create me, but we wound up drifting apart once I created the City of Steel. She began cooperating with the Skylox Heroes around that time, so it was only natural. Still, I would say that there are either five or six. After all, I've got five elements, so that means there are either five or six of us," she replied. 

"You know, the elements that you do have dominion over are rather odd to me," Arian commented with a frown. "All five of them are Green Magic, and I don't think there's ever been a group of Hanilia with someone who matched up so perfectly with that group of five."

In the Galaxy of Hyperion, magic was broken down into five primary categories. Red Magic originated from Fire, Blue Magic from Water, Green Magic from Air, Yellow Magic from Earth, and Neutral Magic from Mystic. However, over time, the elements began to further divide creating five from each subcategory. Much like Arian had stated though, having all five of the elements from a given category was incredibly rare, and Jay didn't think that she had heard of anyone possessing those elements and no others. 

Lana nodded. "That is true. I suppose that would make it seem as if there are five of us then," she concluded. "I'm afraid I can't really help you much from there. All of the other Skylian Mages were chosen long after I drifted apart from Lyloc. We simply didn't have as much to speak anymore, and that's a true shame in my eyes. Still, I guess there's nothing that can be done about it. Oh, well." She shrugged before looking back to Jay and Arian. "What are you going to do now?"

"We have to find the other Skylian Mages," Jay told her with a simple frown. "We were given this mission by Lyloc herself, and I'm not about to let her down. There are four others as far as we're aware, and we'll simply have to find them. When we do, we'll pursue this threat that you believe is causing problems."

Lana hesitated before she spoke again. "In all honesty... I believe that Lana decided to have us group together at this moment specifically because of what has been happening as of late. Over on Daragon, Mersall was revealed to be Arsllem, one of the original Lakinya from the war between Hyperion and Loki. This means that there are potentially twenty-three other Lakinya roaming around, and they are likely regaining their powers at this point the way that Mersall was."

"That Ice mage we ran into must be one of them, and that means that we have to figure out what's going on," Arian concluded. "If that really was a Lakinya, we could be in for a world of trouble if we don't figure everything out as soon as possible. I would hate for something to happen while we're busy with other things, but... We have to find the Skylian Mages as soon as possible in order to end all of this madness."

"We'll simply have to work faster then. We know what our mission is now, and if we really are up against a Lakinya, we'll have to get ready. The Skylian Mages are undoubtedly some of the strongest fighters alive right now because of their five elements. I doubt that all others will be forthcoming about their true identities as Skylian Mages, so that leaves us with a few new problems to contend with even though Lana was cooperative," Jay pointed out with a frown. 

"I don't even know if Lyloc came into contact with the others," Lana admitted. "It's not as if I would have a way of being sure, but... If there was someone that caught her eye, she could have been able to select them without getting too close. Immortals aren't all that common, so we should just start from the top of the list. There's a chance that some won't be listed, but it's a risk that we're going to have to take."

"Rumors will be our best friend. If some people aren't aging, others are going to catch on. Mages age far slower than regular humans, but it's still inevitable that someone will notice how long a given person has looked the same. From there, we can narrow our search and figure out who we should check out next," Jay suggested. 

"I'm going to need to make some preparations to leave the City of Steel. I know that the people here can handle themselves, but I suggest that you spend some time talking about our next action for now," Lana pointed out. "Besides, if we're going to be wandering around, perhaps I should wear something a bit less conspicuous than armor, wouldn't you say?"

Before Jay and Arian had a chance to respond, Lana was on her feet, a laugh leaving her lips. She walked towards the door, and she was gone soon afterwards. The door shut behind her, and Jay looked over to Arian silently. That conversation had gone rather well, she had to admit. 

"So... We've found the first one in our merry little band," commented Arian with a crooked yet anxious smile. "I'd say that we're already making good progress. I know that we still need to track down the other four, but we're on the way, and that's what matters."

Jay frowned at the way that he called it 'our' merry little band. The wording bothered her for reasons that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Even if they had been summoned to take care of rounding up the Skylian Mages, neither Jay nor Arian was part of the group. This was a mission given to them by Lyloc, but that didn't mean in the slightest that they were members of the final team. Surely Lyloc would have told them if that was the case, especially if the other members of the group weren't going to be aware of it. 

Still, Jay didn't say anything about this. She knew that Arian was simply going to cover his tracks if she called him out then, and she wasn't in the mood to deal with that. Instead, she nodded. "We still have a lot to do, so we can't get too comfortable," she told him. "I'm sure that Lana will be able to take care of this place rather quickly though. She runs the City of Steel incredibly efficiently."

"Yeah... I would have expected someone responsible for creating a city like this to be a Metal mage, but she doesn't have that power at all," Arian commented. "I suppose that life has a way of surprising you. It shows just how talented she is when it comes to creating other creatures."

"Given the fact that she said Lyloc created her, that's not too surprising. In fact, she's most likely a robot just like the rest of them. She simply doesn't fit the same physical description as the rest of them since she lacks the obvious metal plating, so it's easier for her to cover up," Jay told him. "She's been working for a long time to create this place and make it as incredibly refined as it is, so I imagine that she already has a backup plan in motion for if she was ever forced to leave for some reason."

"That's a relief to hear about. Knowing that we still have to find other mages is going to make this a lot harder," Arian commented with a small sigh. "I know that we were always going to have to track them down, but I guess that part of me was hoping that Lana would be aware of what Lyloc had been getting up to."

"Lana is essentially Lyloc's child, and as soon as she was old enough, she took off to pursue the rest of her life. As unfortunate as it is to hear about, this was a natural development, and we're simply going to have to deal with it from here on out," Jay shrugged. "There's nothing we can do about it now, so we'll just take the future in our hands since the answer isn't being handed to us on a silver platter."

Arian nodded slowly, but Jay could sense something uneasy about his silence. He was inscrutable as he stared down at the floor, and she knew that something had to be on his mind. She doubted that he was going to be willing to openly admit such though, so she pressed her lips together tightly and allowed the quiet to close in around them. She would certainly get her chance to poke through the weaknesses in his mask and reveal whatever had been on his mind for all this time. 

The doors opened before Jay could further strategize on what to do regarding Arian. She looked up to see Lana walking back inside, a wide smile on her face. Her hair was still in the same ponytail it had been before, but she now wore a loose gray jacket over an orange t-shirt. She wore tight jeans of a dark blue color with black boots. Black gloves were on her hands, but only her ring and pinkie fingers had fabric over the fingers. Her pointer and middle fingers were left exposed, and Jay knew that this was likely for the sake of easily navigating mechanical interface. It was only natural given how she ran a city that operated solely off computers. 

"It's good to see that you two were able to keep yourselves occupied while I was gone," Lana commented, and a smile left her lips. "Now, what do you say to the two of us getting out of here? Like you said, we've got a lot of research to take care of, and I think that we should go on and get started as soon as possible."

"Do you have any ideas on where we should even start from?" Arian questioned. "Jay and I are unfortunately clueless, so we'd be happy to take any tips that you might have for us."

"As a matter of fact, I've already got that covered," Lana replied. "I'm having the people here in the City of Steel aid us in discovering new information. If anything interesting is uncovered, we'll know about it immediately, and that will give us the perfect chance to dig deeper on the subjects that really matter."

"That's for the best. After all, we can't really afford to twiddle our thumbs for too long. It's going to keep us from finding that Lakinya leader, and who can say if we'll even be able to take them down if we get close enough before gathering the rest of the Skylian Mages?" Jay asked. "When the Clan Leaders took down Mersall, they were primarily able to do so because he had been immensely weakened. It took ages for them to get past his defenses and discover a weak point in his armor. We could find ourselves struggling from the same issues if we aren't careful."

"We do need to travel at a decent pace, but I still don't think that means we should lose ourselves in the process. Everything is going to be alright, I'm sure. If anything bad happens, we're going to know about it immediately, and that's what matters most," Lana assured her. She wrapped one arm around Jay's shoulders while hooking the other around Arian's upper torso. She guided them both out of the room and towards the elevator at the other end of the hall. 

Jay couldn't help but look at Lana and wonder what the hell was going on inside her head. Less than half an hour ago, she had been a solemn leader known for commanding the City of Steel through turmoil and peace alike. Her people respected her above all else, and she was known for her power behind the mask of her alias. However, she was starting to wonder if any of that was real. 

Lana was a war hero, and there was no way to doubt that, but when the facade fell away, all Jay was left seeing was a quirky girl who acted the same age as her and Arian. Lana's grins were clearly curious and read of inquisition. She was kind, optimistic, and talkative, not at all like the persona she had initially projected when she and Arian first crossed paths with her. The shift was sudden and drastic, but Jay had to admit that she rather admired Lana for it. 

Jay was a born soldier the same way that Lana had been, and yet, she couldn't move past the shadows of the past no matter how hard she tried. When she closed her eyes, she saw what remained of Nadia even well after the end of the battle there, and she wondered if she would ever be free of such daunting imagery. Lana had clearly moved past the issues that plagued her, and Jay wished that she could do the same. She had only known Lana for a short period of time, and yet, her admiration was without compare. 

Jay, Lana, and Arian stepped into the elevator, and Jay knew that this was the end of the first step of their journey. The future was waiting for them, and they were going to have to grab it head on if they wanted to have any chance of succeeding against their foe. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Late night update hell yeah
> 
> -Digital


	10. Chapter Nine: In Desert Sands

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jay, Arian, and Lana trek through the desert in search of a major energy source.

Jayler had to admit that he was rather happy with the handiwork of his team. No matter how he looked at it, they had done a good job with cleaning up the castle. Much to his own surprise, they worked quickly, and the primary areas had already been cleared away after just a few hours. Of course, they still had to worry about the individual rooms where the members of different Hanilia factions would be staying, and Gemini seemed pretty insistent on assigning different regions for the various factions. It was progress regardless though, and Jayler was more than willing to accept that. Cleaning the area had been a gargantuan task, and yet, he was certainly starting to feel as if they could round it off and finish in a timely manner. 

The other Clan Leaders were exhausted by the time they called for a lunch break. Gemini refused to admit it, but Jayler could still see the way that her body sagged with relief when it was time to eat. All six of them gathered in the main area and sat in a circle on the floor to eat a few sandwiches that Tuila had created for them. There were a few other members of the Draconic Superiors scattered around the castle who had either finished lunch already or wanted to keep going, so it was only the Clan Leaders in the entrance hall. Jayler was fine with such, as it gave him a time to talk to his friends without anyone else around. It wasn't as if Jayler didn't like being around the Draconic Superiors; he simply enjoyed all the time he got around the Clan Leaders. 

"So... I'd say that we're making some pretty good progress on the castle," Lex declared, starting off their unofficial meeting with her regular seamless charm as she took a bite of her sandwich. "I'm glad that we've already gotten through the main areas. The rooms are going to be the hard part, but this is still progress."

"I'm glad that we've been able to come so far as well," Ocean agreed with a small nod before turning to look at Gemini. "Do you think that you'll have the plan figured out for the areas where the specific Hanilia factions will be staying in soon?"

Gemini nodded. "Yeah. I've gotten a pretty good feel of the layout for the castle, so it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out who is staying where. There are a few larger towers filled with smaller rooms that we can use to figure out where the larger factions should stay when they're around here. The small areas can be used for the factions of six or so like our group," she explained. "We can keep everyone with their team without any real issues, and it keeps the area organized enough that we'll be able to identify where each person is at a given time. I'd say that it makes this easier for everybody staying in the castle."

"You're nice and on top of things," Luke smiled to her. "I'm glad that you have so much confidence in your skills. It's certainly admirable to see."

Gemini shrugged nonchalantly. "It's just how I am. I hate to see something in disarray, so I figured that I might as well do what I can to keep this area as organized as possible. We're going to be spending a lot of time here in the future, and it's nothing like the hideout we're used to."

"That's for sure," Xia snorted. "We knew where everyone was at all times while we were in the hideout during the war on Daragon because it was only one room. All it took was looking around to figure out where a given person could be found. This place is a bit more complicated, but I don't think that's a bad thing at all."

"I'm glad to hear that we all agree," Jayler laughed. "As much as I love the hideout, I think I could get used to sleeping on a bed that isn't beneath four others in a column. The hideout had a nice cozy feel to it, but this... This castle really makes it feel like we're on a genuine fantastical adventure, and I think that's the perfect sensation to get from it all."

"You're such a nerd," Xia laughed, but there was no malice to her voice. She took a swig from her cup of water. "Anyways, we should probably take advantage of the cleaning while we have the chance. Who can say for sure when we'll be able to enjoy peace like this again? For all we know, it'll be a pain in the neck to go further when it comes to searching for the members of the other Hanilia factions."

"We're going to find a way to make it work," Lex assured her with an easy smile. "It's just a matter of figuring out a timeline that works for us. We'll have to track down a lot of people, and there's always the chance that they won't even know that they're Hanilia. If all goes well, we can count on the help of at least a few of the Draconic Superiors from time to time. Even if Daragon's reconstruction needs most of them a strong majority of the time, I'm sure that we'll be able to rely on a few of them showing up to help us every once in a while, and if you ask me, that's just what we need."

"There are so many of them out there... And we have multiple planets to sift through," Jayler remarked with a small cringe. When the group looked at him with worry in his eyes, he shook his head with an awkward smile. "I think that we can handle it. Don't get it twisted. I'm just thinking about how this is a huge undertaking, and we had best be ready before we go charging in, you know?"

"That's for sure," Gemini agreed with a small shake of her head. "As far as I can tell, there are ten groups of Hanilia. Those are the ones that Tuila told us about, and we've only found two of them so far. If we're lucky, we'll be able to track down all of the Hanilia easily. If we're lucky, they'll already be aware of what they are, and they'll have consolidated into groups that we can access in bulk."

"But if we're unlucky, this could be a really tedious mission," Xia sighed, a frown poisoning her features. "I suppose there's nothing for us to do about it, and we're just going to have to put up with whatever the world throws at us, but... I think that you know the problems with this already. There could be so many of them out there."

"We can start where we think would be best. I have no doubt that Tuila will tell us as soon as she knows where we should look first," Jayler declared to the group firmly. "After we start there, the pieces should fall into place. That's what I'm hoping for, at the very least. It would certainly make our jobs a lot easier."

"Maybe we should focus on finishing our jobs here before we get too carried away," Ocean suggested. "We're only going to stress ourselves out if we think about everything that we have left to do, so we should take it one step at a time and deal with each obstacle as it appears. We can find the members of the other Hanilia factions after the palace has been prepared."

Jayler couldn't help but smile to himself, happy to see that Ocean was able to keep them on track regardless of how nervous they all got. He nodded his agreement. "Yeah, you're right. Stressing ourselves out isn't going to help anyone but our enemies."

"You act like we have enemies right now," Xia commented. "Everything is fine, Jayler. There's nobody for us to fight, and that's a good thing. I don't want to have to fight all over again so soon after we've freed ourselves of the war on Daragon. Please don't curse us with your pessimism."

"I wouldn't go so far as to say that we're being cursed by pessimism," Luke interjected. "After all, Jayler is probably the most positive person here aside from maybe Lex. Everything is going to be alright. We don't have enemies right now, and that's what matters. We don't need to think about it further than that."

Jayler nodded his agreement. "Yeah, Luke is right. Now, how about we focus on what we came here to do?" he asked upon realizing that the rest of the group was finished eating. He rose to his feet and stretched his arms above his head before starting to walk towards the stairs. "We still have a long way to go before we're ready to start looking around for other Hanilia, and I think that we should focus on making sure this place is spotless. I'm going to start in the left tower. I'll meet you all there."

Jayler dashed off soon afterwards, leaving the rest of the group to rise once he was gone. They all looked to one another briefly before trailing after him, all thoughts of enemies left behind. The war on Daragon was over, and Mersall had been dead for a few weeks. Their mission had been accomplished, and they were dealing with the power that Hanilia possessed in times of peace. Everything was going to be alright for them, and there was no reason for them to worry about being dragged into yet another conflict... Right? 

~~~~~

Jay, Arian, and Lana had left the City of Steel behind a few hours ago, and they were walking through the desert sand around the town contained in glass. Jay had thought it would be more efficient to simply teleport away, but Lana seemed to believe that there was something there. The determination was laced into her features, and she refused to let it go regardless of how many dunes of sand were swept off the ground by the blustering wind. 

Jay had created a mask of magic to cover her face as a way of making sure that she wasn't blinded by the onslaught of sand. Arian had done the same, but Lana didn't seem to mind it in the slightest. She supposed that Lana would naturally be most prepared for this situation given that she was a robot known for creating various other creatures, so she had undoubtedly gotten ready in case a situation like this ever arose. After all, the City of Steel was located at the heart of a desert, so she had likely been ready for this for quite some time, and she was simply taking advantage of the modifications that she had been working on for years up to that point. 

Lana's stubbornness had been charming at first, but Jay had to admit that she was losing faith there was anything out there in the desert sand. What could possibly happen of interest or import so far away from civilization? As far as she was aware, the City of Steel was the only town for miles, and she didn't know why anyone would want to establish a city in such an isolated area that lacked anything resembling life. 

Arian didn't seem to be feeling much better about the situation, and he kept looking over at Jay in an attempt to get her to snap out of her trance of staring at Lana and begging her via eye contact to stop leading them into a sandstorm. Lana didn't appear to be willing to meet her gaze though, and she kept on pressing them further into the desert dunes. The heat was burning into Jay's skin, and she knew that she was going to start to suffer from a sunburn if they weren't careful. She cast a small charm to make sure that the heat wasn't too overwhelming, and she saw Arian do the same thing out of her peripheral vision. 

Jay went to open her mouth to ask Lana if she knew what she was doing, but Lana spoke before she had the chance. "The sensors on the dome around the City of Steel have been picking up on something at the heart of this sandstorm for as long as I can remember. In fact, my personal sensors have been noticing something as well, and I want to check it out, because it feels like there's something seriously powerful hiding out here in the sand," she explained. She didn't even look up from her path, keeping her eyes glued on the yellow dust ahead even as Jay and Arian watched her quizzically. Each step was just as sure as the last, and her confidence was incredible. 

"What do you think could be out here?" Arian asked, but Jay knew that he was really on the verge of questioning Lana regarding if they could take a break. There wasn't a good place to stop for a rest given that all that could be seen was sand as far as the eye could see. Uncertainty had clouded his eyes, and he kept on looking over at Jay with hopes that she had the answers he lacked. 

Lana hesitated before shrugging. "I'm not sure, but I think that there's a small area out here that has a huge secret, and it wouldn't hurt for us to check it out. After all, this space has been isolated for ages, and it would be the perfect place for a Lakinya to hide. If that's really what we're up against, we need to at least be aware of what we could fear from this region," she told him. "Given how well-hidden it is from the rest of the world, it would offer more than enough cover for our Lakinya friend."

Jay couldn't criticize her logic as soon as she had heard it, but she wished that the village shrouded in sand was a little bit closer. Arian had started to breathe heavily, his jaw dropped from a mix of exhaustion and the heat. He was growing uneasy on his feet, and Jay suspected that he was nowhere near as used to this as she was. Jay had gone through extensive training to prepare herself for these conditions, but Arian didn't have anywhere near the same amount of experience. Lana's inherent advantage was not being human, so she didn't need to worry as much about growing tired during the lengthy walk. 

Jay let out a gasp as soon as she saw a shifting shape on the horizon. The closer she got, the more sure of herself she was; they had found the village Lana was speaking about. Arian noticed it as well, and he immediately took off running, in desperate need of a reprieve after suffering under the strength of the sun above. Jay ran after him, if only to keep him out of trouble, and Lana trailed a few feet behind them both as the village came into focus. 

The buildings of the village were on the old side for sure, and some of them looked as if they were on the verge of falling apart if pushed too far. Jay could see a few people milling about, and the city gates blocked her, Arian, and Lana from getting too close. There weren't too many buildings as far as she could tell, and they were all spread out as if the people didn't have anything to lose by taking up as much space as they wanted. She supposed that their perspective made sense given that they were in the middle of the desert where nobody would bother to look for them. 

Arian didn't stop running until he had reached the gate, and he pressed his hands against one of the sideways beams of the fence, specifically the one as the top row. He looked around the town, in desperate search for the place where the gate opened for him to pass through. Jay slid to a stop behind him, and Lana arrived not long after. They began to look around as well, but none of them were able to figure out where they were meant to enter the town. 

At first, Jay had to wonder if any of the people in the town had noticed them, but she soon got her answer when a young man wandered close to them. He had light brown hair with streaks of blonde in it, and his hair was swept off to one side of his face. His eyes were the same glittering green as emeralds, and he wore a muted red scarf around his neck. The rest of his clothing was hidden among the swirling sand. He tilted his head to the side as he watched Jay, Arian, and Lana. 

"I haven't seen you around here before," he commented simply. He gestured for the trio to follow him, and he walked the group towards a gate that had been hiding behind a large post. The perspective Jay, Arian, and Lana had been scouring the town from had kept them from seeing it, but it felt painfully obvious as soon as the boy had them walking through it. He bowed kindly to them as he let them inside, and a gentle smile was on his face. 

"What is this place?" Arian questioned, glancing around the town slowly. There were other people milling about the area, and Jay couldn't tell if they were ignoring the group deliberately or simply hadn't noticed yet. She only shrugged it off when she figured that the answer wasn't all that important. 

"Welcome to our humble little town," the boy replied. "Cloudpeak is its name. We haven't seen visitors here in many years. I don't think I've seen anyone new move in since our current leader arrived over a hundred years ago... Wow. Times sure have changed."

Jay tried not to show her surprise at the young man casually mentioning how he was over a hundred years old. He looked even younger than she did, and she was only sixteen. His face was round, and his eyes were wide, giving the appearance of a teen with a serious case of babyface. Still, he didn't seem to mind, and his smile remained as shy yet bright as ever. 

"Who are you?" Arian asked slowly, seemingly far less surprised by this revelation of age than Jay was. In fact, he didn't even appear to have processed it fully given how little he seemed to mind it. 

The boy let out a gasp before laughing to himself. "Oh! I suppose I forgot to introduce myself to you... Sorry about that. My name is Ronan. It's a pleasure to meet you," he explained, pressing one hand against his chest before bowing to the three newcomers. "Welcome to Cloudpeak. If you need anything, all you have to do is say so. Feel free to settle down however you wish, and I'd be more than happy to help you. The people of Cloudpeak are all incredibly kind, and we would be more than glad to help you in any way possible."

"Thank you," Lana answered as Ronan grinned and dashed off. As soon as he was gone, her smile slipped a fraction of an inch before she looked over to Arian and Jay. "I have a bad feeling about this place. I don't know what's going on here, but... There's a disturbance in the area."

"What kind of disturbance?" Arian asked, his face suddenly pale despite the sun beating down on them from overhead. He clearly wanted to ask for more details, but he couldn't bring his lips to move further. 

Lana shrugged before shaking her head. "I wish I could tell you, but I don't know how to say it for sure. I can tell that there's something powerful here, but I can't put a finger on where it is. There's something deliberately messing with my sensors, and I don't think that it has anything to do with the sandstorm. Be sure to stay on your guard," she explained softly. 

Jay nodded slowly, unsure of what else would be appropriate to do in the given circumstances. She glanced around the town once again soon afterwards, and her gaze rose up to something on the horizon that caught her attention. It was on the far edge of the village compared to where she, Arian, and Lana had entered, but it was incredibly glaring once she was close enough to catch onto its presence. 

A volcano was waiting on the other side of the town's border. It was partially hidden by the sandstorm, but the brown of the peak could still be seen when she looked closely enough. She doubted that it was active, but she had the sneaking suspicion that it was somehow important, and she decided to tuck it into the back of her mind in case it was somehow involved with the disturbance that Lana had mentioned. 

Arian and Lana followed her gaze to stare at the mountain as well, though neither of them seemed to have an explanation for it. Jay hadn't ever gotten the chance to study desert terrain excessively, so for all she knew it was normal, but she couldn't help but be uncomfortable with the way that it was placed so casually next to a desert. It seemed like a clash of circumstances somehow, but she didn't know how to describe it. Arian had worry etched clearly on his features, and Lana was clearly attempting to rationalize how such a peculiar set of circumstances could come to be. Jay cringed at the realization that her suspicion wasn't out of the ordinary, and she wondered just what they had stumbled into. 

Ronan was a strange person as well. No matter how she looked at it, there was something about him that was odd. She knew that mages lived longer than people from Earth. Their slowed age process was something she had been aware of throughout her life, and yet, she couldn't shake the thought that there was something strange about him. He seemed so innocent and relaxed in the face of the rest of the town. If there was something going on with the village near the volcano, then there was undoubtedly something strange about him as well, and Jay wished that she had the ability to figure out what it was. 

Lana was the first person to move after the volcano was spotted, and she shook her head before taking a step forward. "Come on. We should keep moving. Maybe we can find a hotel to settle down in before we go to get some food. How does that sound?" she questioned. 

Arian and Jay both shared a glance before nodding in response and deciding to trail after Lana. Jay couldn't forget the strange expression on Lana's face though, and she figured that her robotic companion was still trying to determine what exactly was so strange about Cloudpeak. However, finding the answer was proving itself to be far easier said than done, and Jay found herself wishing that she could do something more than watch the perplexed Lana think everything over. 

Jay did her best to calm her concerns by saying that she would be able to figure out the mystery of Cloudpeak soon. She could find out what was going on, and then she, Arian, and Lana would be able to leave to go back to their mission of finding the Skylian Mages. However, despite this, she found herself thinking about how there was something odd going on that she couldn't see, and Jay wanted nothing more than to find the answer. She didn't know what the hell was so strange about Cloudpeak, but she was determined to find out, and she could only pray that the answer she found didn't wind up leading to something terrifying or dangerous. She'd seen enough of that to last a lifetime. 

~~~~~

Colt didn't even know why he was trying anymore. 

Working was nothing more than a damn headache, and he was getting tired of it. He was certainly wishing for something new to happen to him so that he would be able to get away from this aggravating environment he had come to despise so much over the years. He wasn't being treated well, but raising complaints was a sure way to receive even more frustrating missions, and he didn't know if he would be able to take that without snapping and punching something. 

'We created you, therefore you have to do what we want.' Not for the first time, Colt found himself rolling his eyes at these words and wishing that he had actually been born rather than created from magic. He had gotten sick of dealing with these frustrating people ages ago, and he wished that he could leave them behind to go and take care of other business. He was too good for this, and he was fully aware of it. 

However, they knew it just as well as he did, and they weren't going to let him go just because he threw a bit of a tantrum about it all. No matter how much he complained or kicked or screamed, they weren't going to let him go. It was a reality that he had come to terms with ages ago, and all Colt could do was roll his eyes at it and wish that something exciting would happen to pull him away from this frustrating life he had come to lead. All he was asking for was a brief break, but it seemed as if that simply wasn't going to be gifted to him anytime soon. If he wanted to find peace, he was going to have to take it by force. 

But taking it by force wasn't an option for him, and it hadn't been in years. There were too many people working as part of the agency that had created him, and if he tried to get away, they'd react with spite and anger. They were petty and mercurial, and if he turned on them, they wouldn't let this transgression go until revenge had been served. Colt had learned this from seeing the way they treated others, and he saw how brutal they could be towards their targets. The last thing he wanted was to wind up on the receiving end of their brutality. 

Instead of leaving, he was just going to have to bite his tongue and smile to the best of his ability, hiding his anger behind a grin that everyone knew was fake. It wasn't as if anyone was going to stop him from smiling that way though, because as long as he was working, nobody needed to bother arguing. It was only until he put up signs of resistance that they would feel the need to get angry, and then they wouldn't hold back. 

Because they were so pushy, Colt was being pushed into his mission to learn more about the Ice Lakinya that had arrived in the remains of the City of Nadia. He scowled to himself as he attempted to figure out what he was supposed to do next. There was no clear answer, but that didn't matter in the slightest to his superiors. All they really cared about was that he found a way to get the job done in a way that didn't have the government on their asses for illegal activity. It had been this way as long as Colt had existed, and he doubted that it would change anytime soon. Unless the entire corporation went down, he was going to have to put up with this. 

Toppling the business was far easier said than done though, and he didn't know if there were enough strong mages in the world to end it all. The Skylox Heroes would have been his best bet, but even so, they didn't dare to cross the group that had sent Colt out on so many dangerous missions up to that point. It was a headache that nobody wanted to deal with, and Colt couldn't even blame them. He wished that there was a way out, but he doubted that it would be easy to find one without committing too many crimes to ever be counted. 

So he kept his frown tight to his face as he kept trying to figure out how he was meant to find this Lakinya, knowing that the consequences if he wasn't able to would be harsh. He had to bite his tongue to keep from muttering vulgar words under his breath, but he still kept searching since he knew that there was no other choice. He would give anything for something to break up this monotonous routine he had been part of for so many years. 

Colt had lost track of how long he had been working for ages ago. If not for the notes that he had scrawled down in his messy handwriting regarding the date of his creation, he would have thought that he had been at this work forever. The date was fuzzy in his mind when he wasn't looking at it on a piece of paper, and he knew it was because he was so sick of all this. He was willing to pay any price for some damn freedom. 

Colt sighed to himself and shook his head. It wasn't the time to get distracted when there was work to be done. His superiors were expecting a response from him, and he was already dreading the way they'd react if he came back without any new information. The monotony was particularly bothering him that day, and he was ready to lose his mind. Still, that wasn't exactly an option for him, so he just dealt with it as if it wasn't a major inconvenience that made him want to tear out his hair. He was hoping that he'd only have to hold on for a bit longer, but a voice at the back of his head told him that it wouldn't be that easy, and he knew that it was right. There was no end in sight no matter how he looked at the situation, and he hated it more than he could ever describe. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This update took a lot longer than expected to get out
> 
> -Digital


	11. Chapter Ten: Stained Glass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jay, Arian, and Lana continue to grow suspicious of Cloudpeak.

That feeling of buzzing discomfort just beneath the surface of skin never quite left Jay behind. She, Arian, and Lana had been in Cloudpeak for a few hours, but they still hadn't made much of any progress, if any, in figuring out just what about the town sat so strangely with them. They had taken to sitting in a room they were sharing at the hotel within the town, and Jay couldn't stop thinking about what had happened when they first entered the building. The images played through her mind again and again, and she had long since stopped trying to halt them. 

The lobby of the hotel had been eerily empty, almost as if nobody wanted to acknowledge the fact that the building even existed. The space was dusty and thick, leaving the air feeling heavy and draining. The air particles seemed to cling fiercely to Jay's skin, and she somehow felt as if her motions were being stifled. She glanced over to Arian and Lana to see if they had the same sense of anxiety that she did, and Arian most certainly did. His eyes were clouded with nerves, and he was unable to stop fiddling around with the edge of his hair. Lana was hiding her anxiety far better, but she was still nervous about what was happening. The lack of certainty was leaving them all on edge, but there was no explanation for why they were so unsettled. Cloudpeak itself seemed to just bring this out of them. 

The hotel room wasn't much cleaner than the rest of the building, and Lana had swiftly cleaned it out as soon as they were settled inside. The space hadn't seen use in so long that it didn't even seem as if someone had passed through in the past two years. Jay was thankful Lana had Air magic, because Lana's cleansing of the space allowed them to breathe. She knew that inhaling would be a distant memory without Lana's influence, and it unsettled her more than she could hope to describe. There was a constant itch resting within her, but she couldn't find a way to claw it no matter how hard she tried. She pressed her lips together in an attempt to not think about it, but there was only so much she could do without thinking about it. 

"What do you think is going on with this town?"

Arian's words snapped Jay out of her trance. She was sitting next to Lana on the larger of the two beds within the hotel room, and Arian was on the other mattress. All three mages looked to each other out of something that looked like curiosity but resembled fear far more. Arian's question was left unanswered for a long time, and none of them knew how to properly respond to it. Jay eventually tore her gaze away, hating that she couldn't quite identify what was bothering her so much. It felt like it was on the tip of her tongue, but she still couldn't reach it. 

"I don't know, but it can't be good," Lana answered simply. "There's some interference hiding here, but I'm not sure what's causing it. I want to talk to Ronan again. There's clearly something happening, and he must know more than us about it. He lives here, so he has an inherent advantage when it comes to finding new information."

"Something about him bugs me," Jay admitted. "He seems so innocent and sweet, but the rest of the town is eerie and ominous. The whiplash is notable... It's not something that I can ignore given how small this place is. It's hiding in the sand dunes. Why would someone so sweet and sociable ignore the rest of the world to live here?"

"Most people probably don't even know this place exists, and that means they're able to get away with a lot," Arian commented. "There's got to be a secret hiding around here, but I don't know how to find it... We should go out searching tomorrow. We've done a lot today, and I know I could use some rest."

Jay didn't remember just how much they had done that day until after Arian commented on it, and she found herself cringing at the realization. They had fought against the Ice mage, or perhaps the Ice Lakinya, just earlier that day. The exhaustion that came with the chill of Nadia had been earlier in the day as well, and they had met Lana only a few hours prior. Somehow, everything seemed to blur together, as if it was being viewed through stained glass. There was an image of Cloudpeak layered over the top of everything else that Jay had experienced recently, making both halves damn near impossible to identify on their own. The confusion was so notable that it made Jay's mind spin. 

"If there's really something going on here, then we'll have to find it," Lana said firmly, but it was clear she was trying to seem far more confident than she felt. "I think there's something censoring the magic of this town, and... I guess I'm finding it rather odd that we haven't had the chance to talk to others about the town at all. The passerby keep on ignoring us."

Jay couldn't deny the truth of Lana's words. Aside from Ronan, the only person who had spoken to them since their arrival in Cloudpeak had been the receptionist at the hotel, but even that conversation had been brief and felt stilted. The smile on the woman's face had clearly been falsified, and no grin or emotion ever reached as far as her eyes. She seemed like a distant, hollow shell that had once been a person years ago. They had ordered food to be brought up to their room, and she had said that she would do what she could to help them. The trio had moved up to their space soon afterwards, and it became clear that nobody had stayed in the hotel in years. Ronan hadn't been kidding when he said that Cloudpeak rarely saw visitors. 

There was something similar to lethargy sinking its ugly fangs into Jay, and she didn't think that she was going to be able to stay awake for much longer than she already had. It made sense given that she and Arian had been incredibly busy all day. Even if they took a break halfway through the day to sleep, they had been running around nearly constantly. Jay still felt the cold from that morning when she lost focus, and she rubbed her hands against the skin covering the top of her arms. She hadn't been this chilled in quite some time, and she was starting to wonder if it had something to do with Cloudpeak. Would she really be so freezing if not for the town? 

Such a conclusion made little to no sense though. They were in the middle of the desert, and the sun that glowed overhead was more than enough to warm up the sands. She had been so hot all the way to Cloudpeak, so why was she so cold all of a sudden? It had been hours since she fought against the Ice mage in Lakinya, so why couldn't she shake the chill? Her senses felt as if they were being dulled, and her defenses were slowly falling away despite her attempts to keep them up. Jay's eyes began to droop even though she was trying with everything she had to keep them open. She had to stay alert. It was too soon to fall asleep. The sun hadn't even vanished over the horizon yet. 

Despite this, Jay found herself slipping over towards the pillow propped up against the top of the bed. Arian wasn't doing much better, and every part of his body, usually filled to the brim with energy, had grown loose and a bit too relaxed. His cheek hit the pillow, and his eyes slowly slipped shut. Jay stared at him for a moment, watching as his breathing evened out into something that seemed a bit too calm to be Arian. He wasn't smiling in his sleep, something she supposed was normal, but it still bothered her with an intensity she didn't now how to fully define. 

Jay didn't force herself to stay awake after Arian slipped into slumber. Why should she have to stay up when Arian was going to be out for the rest of the night anyways? They'd be able to investigate Cloudpeak and all of its eccentricities the next morning. They wouldn't be able to get anything done if they were exhausted, so it would be for the best if they just slept then and worried about the rest of the world later. 

It took Jay a lot more effort to convince herself to sleep than she had been expecting, but she eventually allowed her eyes to slowly flutter shut. Darkness overtook everything she was in a matter of seconds, and the world blurred until nothing was left. She couldn't tell apart the stained glass from the rest of the world, but she suddenly didn't care about if there was a difference. Was there something unique about both halves, or was she only imagining it? Did it matter? 

The shadows told her that it didn't, and Jay was all too happy to believe them with the way she felt as if she was crumbling at the seams. She shut her eyes and allowed the rest of the world to vanish as sleep overtook her. There was a restlessness that she felt for a brief moment before her exhaustion eclipsed everything else. _Something is wrong_ , was the last thing she thought, and for the first time that evening, she wasn't thinking about Cloudpeak at all. 

~~~~~

Jayler threw a basketball above his head as he stretched out on his bed. He spun the ball before catching it once again. He hadn't ever been the athletic type, but every once in a while, all he wanted to do was throw something around, and the ball was the easiest target for him to let out his emotions. He flicked the ball up and caught it. 

It had only been a few days since he was dragged back to Hyperion, and yet, he couldn't shake his impatience. Jayler hadn't ever been the type to be caught up in his anticipation, but this situation somehow felt different. He couldn't stop thinking about his sister as soon as his attention shifted in her direction. 

He hadn't been given the chance to look for her yet. He would get the opportunity one day, but that time simply hadn't come yet. He knew that he was on the verge of finding the power to search for her, but he still couldn't calm himself. That wasn't enough all of a sudden. It had been a comfort to him for so long, a balm against his rattling excitement, but it was insufficient seemingly out of nowhere. 

Jayler knew exactly why this was, and he hated it. He had gotten so excited and preoccupied with the idea of seeing his sister as soon as he was back on Hyperion. She had promised him that she would be back, and he wanted to believe her. He had believed her. Going back there but not seeing a face that looked like an echo of his own hurt a lot more than he had been expecting, and there wasn't a way for him to banish the thought from his mind. 

As much as he loved the rest of the Clan Leaders, he knew that they wouldn't ever be able to fully comprehend what he was going through. Despite their sympathetic smiles, Jayler was sure that they didn't understand. It wasn't anything against them; the situation was simply too unique for him to ignore. 

The ball spun in the air once again, and it clapped against Jayler's hands when he caught it this time. He hadn't realized that he had thrown it with such force. Why was this so hard for him? He knew that he would be with her soon enough, and he wasn't an impatient person. What about this was so different? 

He knew what it was despite his attempts to block out the truth. He was so close to figuring out everything that he could have ever wanted to know, but it was still out of his grasp. His fingers kept on touching freedom, but he couldn't grab onto it with enough power to make a difference. 

Jayler was the adventurous, curious sort. He faced his problems with a bold smile and as much confidence as he could mange. He took every challenge in stride and used everything he had to push himself to success. He had thought that he understood how he worked, and every facet of his personality had been so familiar to him. 

But then the Silver Knight appeared, and from nowhere, his stomach constantly burned with a fiery anticipation that he hadn't ever seen before. He didn't know how to describe it aside from a constant itch that he longed to scratch, but he knew that wasn't going to be possible until he was able to find her once again. Desperation was leeching off his sense of optimism, and he was wondering if his supply was going to be exhausted soon. 

She was a Hanilia just like he was. They were bound to cross paths sooner or later, and he knew that, but there was only so long he could exist within the limits of his own hope. He knew that she wanted to see him just as much as he longed to reach out to her, but he was still missing the sound of her voice. When they next met, her words would no longer be muffled by silvery armor, and he was looking forward to it far longer than he should have. 

The first day of the Skylia operation had been successful, but they still had a long way to go. Jayler tossed the basketball up again before catching it. This time, the ball stung against his palms, and he let out a sigh before setting the ball off to the side of his bed and shutting his eyes. It was getting late, and he wanted to be ready in case something else happened with the rest of the Clan Leaders the next day. They weren't planning on meeting up, but he figured that he would at least be ready. 

As soon as Jayler's eyes shut, he was on the verge of sleep. He was far more tired than he had realized, and there wasn't a way for him to escape it no matter how desperate he was. When slumber finally overtook him, Jayler dreamed of meeting with the Silver Knight again. It felt as if she was so close, and yet, there was the distance of a thousand miles between them. His sleep was filled with images of a girl with brown hair and a blurred face that he knew looked like his without even needing to see it, and the pictures lingered for hours afterwards. He woke up around two in the morning, and when he did, sleep evaded him for ages. All he could think about was that face, and he wanted to see it more than anything else in the world. 

~~~~~

Lana didn't know what woke her up, but as soon as her eyes opened, she knew she wasn't going to be getting back to sleep anytime soon. 

She let out a light sigh and shook her head before swinging her legs over the side of the bed. Her robotic eyes allowed her to see perfectly despite the darkness, and she could see Jay and Arian both sleeping soundly nearby. There was still something off about the room though, and Lana didn't know how to describe it. She shifted uncomfortably for a moment before rising to her feet, stretching her arms above her head. Her body felt oddly creaky, and it wasn't at all because of her robotic body. She frowned to herself before moving towards the door. She had to get some fresh air. Maybe that would clear her head. 

Lana slowly slipped through the crack between the door and the wall after she had twisted the knob and pulled the slab open. She shut the door behind herself before moving down the hall and out into the lobby of the hotel. The entire area was dark, and Lana frowned to herself. She would have expected someone to at least be there to run the building, but it seemed that wasn't the case. She did her best to shrug it off, but she couldn't banish it from her mind no matter how hard she tried. 

Lana arrived outside soon afterwards, and a harsh breeze practically slammed into her as soon as she was outside. A shiver ran up her spine, and she rubbed her hands against her upper arms. When had it gotten so cold? Lana was fully aware of how chilly desert areas could get to be at night, but there was something different about it this time. She didn't know how to describe it, but there was something off. 

Still, she didn't turn back, instead concentrating on placing one foot in front of the other as she navigated her way through Cloudpeak. There wasn't as much sand in the air as there had been during the day, making it easier to see the volcano that pierced the skyline. It appeared to be dormant, but Lana couldn't help her frown at the thought that perhaps it was very much alive. It wouldn't surprise her given how peculiar natural phenomena could act under the influence of magic, but she would certainly prefer to not tempt the fates by giving them any ideas. They were trying to enjoy a peaceful night in the town before exploring the potential odd little details the following day. They needed some time to unwind. 

There weren't any people out and moving about, which made sense given the hour, but it still bothered Lana. She still felt as if she was being watched. There weren't any townspeople in sight, but she could sense eyes staring at her every move, and she bit down on her lip. This was most certainly odd. 

When she and the rest of the group had arrived earlier, none of the people in the town had acknowledged them. The only person to actually approach them was Ronan, and while the manager of the hotel had spoken to them, it still felt forced and weirdly stilted, as if the conversation was more of an order rather than an easy chat about visitors to the village. 

Could it be that everyone was afraid of them? Lana certainly didn't want to rule it out despite how dreadful the idea was, and she frowned to herself at the thought. Maybe there were people watching her walk around from their places inside of their homes. After all, there were quite a few small buildings scattered around the area, but they all seemed to regard the hotel with wary uncertainty. The air was chilled, but not in the way that Lana was familiar with. Something was wrong. The cold of the wind didn't feel natural at all, but if it wasn't brought on by nightfall, then what the hell was going on?

Lana felt another shiver run up her spine, and she naturally sunk into a battle stance before she could stop herself. She scolded herself for a moment before returning to her regular posture, but there was still something that made her think that perhaps she had made the right choice in her moment of instinct. Lana hadn't been involved in combat in quite some time, but she was still rolling over various strategies in her mind. It had been years since her last fight, but she liked to think that she had enough experience to ensure that she would be able to defend herself if anything went too wrong. 

Lana kept walking, but she couldn't help wondering if perhaps it would be for the best if she abandoned her ideas of a nighttime stroll to retreat to her room at the hotel. Jay and Arian were likely going to wonder where she had disappeared to if she was gone for too long, and the last thing she wanted to do was worry them. Maybe she should just go back... 

That was when Lana remembered the way that she hadn't been able to properly sense magic ever since arriving. Back in the City of Steel, she had been able to tell that there was something strong resting in the desert sands, but she hadn't ever gone out of her way to learn more. After all, there were people counting on her leadership, and it would be too risky for her to abandon the city for an extended period of time without the proper preparation. She had gotten far closer to the source of the magic, and yet, her powers felt dulled. 

The cold of the night was beginning to sink into her very core, and Lana glanced around in a moment of panic that she didn't know how to describe. She was positive that somebody was watching her, but she couldn't identify where they were. All of the curtains of the windows in the nearby buildings had been pulled shut, hiding the occupants of Cloudpeak from her view. If she had wanted to, she could have easily used her advanced technology to see through the curtains and look at the people who were causing such issues for her anxiety, but she convinced herself to not get too far into thinking about it. She was a guest in Cloudpeak, and she didn't want to make others even more suspicious of her and the rest of her group. 

Lana turned around to go back to the hotel. She had been hoping to clear her mind, but this walk was doing anything but that. If she wanted to find peace, she had to get out of the open air and find a place where she felt secure. The constant feeling of being watched was starting to grate on her nerves, and she felt as if she was riding a knife's edge. There was a fine line between comfort and terror, and Lana wondered if she would be able to find one side or the other at all that night. 

As soon as Lana had turned around though, she could see a figure standing on the horizon that happened to block her path to the hotel. She let out a gasp and took a step backwards before strengthening her resolve and moving forward once again. She wasn't going to let someone like that stop her from getting back to the hotel. Avoiding them wasn't going to help her at all when she felt as if she was going to explode if she didn't return to the rest of her team. 

The moonlight made it difficult to see the new arrival at first, but Lana's incredible vision allowed her to pick out the finer details a few seconds later. She could see that it was a man who seemed rather stern, and his gaze was unreadable. His eyes were hiding behind glittering black sunglasses even though it was the middle of the night. His hair was a silver color that gleamed with the same tints as the moon. His skin was pale enough to be mistaken for snow, and it was impossible to say where his skin ended and his hair began. He wore a black suit that contrasted the rest of his body notably, and his lips were set in a strict frown. One of his hands was shoved into a pocket, and the other fiddled with the wide of his sunglasses. There was something about him that screamed intimidation, but Lana refused to be deterred from her mission. 

Lana kept walking even though the man was bothering her in ways she didn't know how to describe. The distance between them slowly got smaller, and Lana avoided looking at him directly. His eyes were impossible to see behind the darkness of his sunglasses, and she didn't feel comfortable staring into what she thought might as well have been soulless voids. Her steps were shaky, but she forced herself to inject confidence into them. 

Maybe this wasn't worth it. As soon as the others were awake, she was going to try and get them the hell out of there. This mission was ridiculous, and she had no reason to believe that it had something to do with their quest to uncover the rest of the Skylian Mages. Lana knew who she was, and she was positive that the other two were aware of who they were, but she had no guarantee that this was at all involved with their journey. They had to get out of there as soon as possible to ensure that they didn't find themselves in any deeper trouble than they were already in. Cloudpeak was bothering all of them, so why were they bothering to stick around? They should just leave, find a way to get out, abandon even the idea of returning--

Lana's shoulder collided with the man's when they were close enough to touch. She finally forced herself to look up at him, and she ground her teeth together to keep herself from screaming in surprise. Her shoulder was so cold out of nowhere, and the chill was only settling in on the spot where he had touched her. 

The man looked down at her, but once again, she couldn't see through his sunglasses to observe the look in his eyes. He stared at her for a few seconds, but it seemed to stretch on for an eternity. A smirk appeared on his lips, but it felt so empty that it sent a shiver up Lana's spine. She wasn't an organic being, and she never had been. She was used to the sensation of life born through unorthodox life since it was the same feeling that lived in every corner of her body. She knew that something about him was fake, and she was going to figure out what it was if he dared to cross her. 

Still, her threats wound up meaning little, and he kept walking as if they had never crossed paths. His gaze once again turned to the sky, and he moved while continuing to ignore her. The moment of panic was gone, and Lana found herself grasping at straws to justify her moment of panicked desperation. Her shoulder was still cold, and she almost felt as if she had been stabbed with an icicle. There was no blood in her veins, so if something like that did happen, there would be no warmth to the injury. Her hand moved up to touch the impact point, and she shuddered as the chill passed over to her fingers. 

_Run._

The thought was only in Lana's head for a moment before she was moving, and her feet slammed into the sand violently as she propelled her body forward. She had to get away, get back to Jay and Arian, no matter what happened. There were still eyes on her, but this time, she could see them. They gleamed in the moonlight, and she felt as if the volcano ahead was staring at her with morbid fascination. It knew exactly who she was, and she couldn't get away from it no matter how hard she tried. Every part of the town was watching her, and that included the man with cold skin. He was facing away from her, and she knew it, but she couldn't shake the feeling that he was finding a way to stare regardless. 

The only person whose gaze she couldn't feel was Ronan. She had come to recognize those soft eyes so easily in the short period of time they had been together, and she couldn't sense him anywhere. He was the only normal part of Cloudpeak, and he was the only person who didn't seem to be run by fear and silent, fascinated gazes. His smiles were sincere and real, possessing a dimension that Lana hadn't ever expected to take comfort in. He was normal even if he had lived for well over a hundred years. She needed to see him again, to warn him that something was wrong. 

As soon as she arrived back at the hotel, Lana practically threw the door open, and she used the air around her to increase her speed. She sprinted as quickly as possible to the room that she was sharing with Jay and Arian. The door was still shut, the same way that she had left it, and she slipped inside as quickly and quietly as possible. Both of them were asleep still, but there was something different this time. 

Jay and Arian both looked paler than before, and Lana frowned at the realization. She slowly made her way over to the side of the bed that she was sharing with Jay, and she pressed hesitant fingers against the other girl's face. 

Cold. 

She wasn't as freezing as the man outside had been, but there was still something eerie about her. Lana didn't have to reach out for Arian to know that he was chilled in the same way, and Lana felt as if she was going to be sick. She sat down on the bed and laid down, not wanting to risk sitting or standing in case it attracted anyone's attention somehow. She knew such a fear was ridiculous, but she still couldn't escape it. 

For the rest of the night, Lana laid there in the darkness, unable to sleep or calm her nerves. She was more sure than ever before that there was something wrong about Cloudpeak, and she wanted to get away above all else. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updates are pretty neat
> 
> -Digital


	12. Chapter Eleven: Cryai

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jay awakens feeling exhausted for unknown reasons, and the trio attempts to escape Cloudpeak.

The next morning, the first thing Jay noticed was how absolutely terrible she felt. 

Her eyes fluttered open slowly, and she stared up at the ceiling for a moment, knowing that she had to get up to explore her surroundings but not having the energy to actually get it done. She stared at the patterns on the upper segment of the room, but she couldn't use them to force herself out of bed. Jay had always been an early riser, and on most occasions, she was able to get going in the morning without too many issues. It was only on her worst days that she found herself stuck in bed for far longer than she should have been. 

This most certainly qualified as one of her worst days. In fact, it somehow seemed to be even worse than her worst days. Jay's entire body felt like it was a creaky mess, and moving was too great a task for her to accomplish on her own. All of her limbs felt like they were made of lead, and her torso seemed to be pressed down against the bed by some invisible force even stronger than gravity. Even looking over at the other two people in the room seemed to be too much for her. 

As soon as Jay was able to force herself to stare at Lana and Arian, she almost wished that she had never done it. Arian looked absolutely awful, and it seemed that he was feeling just as nasty as Jay was. His eyes were tired, and his body seemed to be collapsing in on itself. He was standing up and stretching, but he barely seemed to be registering what was happening around him. 

Then there was Lana. Her eyes were wide with panic, and she was pacing around the space at the bottom of the bed. Judging by how tense her shoulders were, something had gone very wrong, and Jay didn't think that she was going to be able to relax for quite some time. She hated to see Lana so stressed out, but it wasn't as if there was anything that she could do to change it. 

Jay's movements were slow and heavy when she finally managed to get herself to sit up. Her body was constantly threatening her with crumbling once again, and even just staring across the room was exhausting to her for reasons she couldn't describe. Her vision was fuzzy, and she could barely force herself to concentrate on much of anything. It was as if everything existed on the other side of a censor that was keeping her from seeing the rest of the world, and she had no idea how to pull herself out of it. 

"What's going on?" Jay questioned, but she was barely able to get the words out. As soon as she had spoken, she found herself feeling tired again, and her eyes were drooping enough to make her want to lean back against the bed and fall back asleep. Maybe she would feel better after getting a bit more rest. She couldn't think of any other reasons for her sudden and dreadful exhaustion. 

"Something happened last night," Lana answered. She still didn't stop pacing, and Jay could only see the outline of Lana's figure given how fuzzy her vision was. Jay tried to will her eyes into focus, but it didn't work. She let out a sigh and wound up leaning back against the bed when she couldn't keep herself upright anymore. It was tempting to slip back into slumber when she pressed her face against the pillow, but she couldn't allow herself to do that. Everyone was counting on her to stay awake for the coming series of events, and she couldn't give in to her own exhaustion quite yet. 

Jay was attempting to rationalize her own sleepiness when Lana suddenly sat down beside her. All sense of coherent thought disappeared as she concentrated on the space between Lana's torso and left arm. Lana wasn't facing Jay, instead choosing to watch Arian's movements with narrowed, scrutinizing eyes. Jay didn't think there was much of anything particularly odd about Arian, but she found herself watching him as well. Sure, he was tired just like she was, but that didn't seem to be a problem for just them. 

In fact, Lana seemed to be tired as well. She was hiding it far better, but she was absolutely exhausted. The skin beneath her eyes was dark, and her eyes were wide with stress. Jay could see it when Lana glanced over her shoulder to ensure that she had the other girl's attention. Jay responded by cringing, but she found that the action hurt her far more than she would have expected, so she made a mental note to stay as still as possible from then on out. 

"I took a walk to try and clear my head since I couldn't sleep. While I was out there, I felt like I was being constantly watched. I think the other people in the town were staring at me," Lana explained. "They were all in their houses, but I could just feel it. They were trying to watch my every action, and it was absolutely terrifying... That was when the man showed up."

Jay hated the sound of that. She didn't get the chance to ask what Lana meant though before the other girl continued. "He appeared seemingly out of nowhere, and when we passed by each other, our shoulders touched. His skin was so cold... I know that some Ice mages are freezing since it's a side effect of their magic, but this was something deeper. I could just tell. I don't know what his problem was, but there was something weird going on. As soon as we were finished, I started running back here. People were still watching me as I came back here, but I didn't really care. I forced myself to look like I was asleep to ensure that nobody got suspicious of us."

"Sounds like we're dealing with something really weird here," Arian commented with a nervous laugh. He had taken a seat on his bed, and Jay was left to wonder when the hell that had happened. He was finished stretching, it seemed, but he was shifting nervously like no other. His teeth worked at his lip, and it looked as if he was on the verge of breaking through skin. 

"We have to get out of this town as soon as possible," Lana explained. "I don't know what's going on here, but I don't think that we want to get caught in the middle of it... The man that I found... He was so much colder than any person should have been. I want you to touch my shoulder where he ran into me. It wasn't natural at all."

Jay watched as Arian reached an arm out to touch Lana's skin. He immediately recoiled and rubbed at his fingers. It looked as if he had been chilled to the bone, and he couldn't stop shivering. "That's ridiculous...!" Arian murmured. His teeth began to chatter, and Jay frowned to herself. If he felt that terrible after just one touch to the man, albeit indirectly, she didn't even know if she wanted to try and see how she felt by trying to touch Lana's skin. 

"I feel like I would feel a lot worse if I wasn't a robot," Lana commented with a light snort even though it was clear that she was far from being in a joking mood. "I guess it doesn't matter though. We just have to get out of here. We can keep looking for the other Skylian Mages elsewhere. Something weird is going on here, and I don't think that we should stick around long enough to figure out what it is."

"Jay," Arian suddenly said, prompting the girl with brown hair to look up at him. "I'm not trying to insult you or anything, but... You look absolutely terrible. Are you sure that you feel up to getting up and moving around?"

"You look awful too," Jay countered. She was avoiding his questions, but she wasn't sure if it was deliberate or not. Did it really matter all that much? They had to get out of the town. That was all there was to it. They could talk more about how terrible they looked and felt later down the line when they weren't in immediate trouble. 

Lana shook her head. "No, you look way worse," she agreed with Arian. Lana reached out and pressed a hand against Jay's forehead, and a frown spread across her features. "That's so weird... It's like you're freezing cold and super hot at the same time... I guess that you're running a fever."

"That's weird," Jay muttered, but she didn't try to object. After all, that was the only way she could explain how absolutely terrible she felt. It had to be a sickness of some kind, but there was an issue with that. "What could I have even gotten sick on...? We've been together for ages, and I felt perfectly normal yesterday. In fact, I didn't start to feel weird until after we got here, and it's not like we looked around for any longer than we had to..."

"Yeah, okay, there's something going on here," Arian agreed, his gaze darting over to Lana. "We have to get out of here before anything worse happens. Jay, do you think that you're going to be able to get up and move around? We have to get away from this stupid town as soon as possible." He had been infected with the same panic as Lana, and he followed her lead in standing beside Jay's bed. He reached out a hand to help Jay to her feet, and Lana did the same. 

Jay wanted to reach out to them, but there was something still bothering her. Her sleepiness was one thing, but she couldn't dismiss the feeling that there was something else going on. It was deeper than simply being tired, but she wasn't sure of how to define it beyond that. Her mind felt like it had been stuffed full of cotton, though she supposed that was likely normal given the circumstances that she found herself in. 

Instead of reaching for Arian and Lana, Jay snapped her fingers together, trying to create a small flare of purple magic. It was a simple spell, the sort of thing that she could pull off in her sleep. She concentrated all her energy into casting the sphere into existence, and yet, nothing appeared. Jay frowned to herself before trying again, but just like before, she failed and came up completely short. There was nothing more than a small spark of purple dancing across her fingertips, and her eyes were losing focus as the seconds passed by. 

"Magic withdrawal," Lana suddenly realized, pressing one hand against her forehead. "I'm a robot, so it doesn't exactly impact me the same way it would others, but you're a mortal. Damn it... I should have seen this coming sooner. You're feeling awful because something is tampering with your magic. I've just had a weird feeling since we got here, but there's something more going on in your case."

"Then why doesn't Arian have it?" Jay questioned, shifting her gaze up to the blonde boy. He was a mortal as well. At the very least, that was what she thought he was, though she couldn't be fussed to press him for information given the context of the situation. She stared at him with tired, droopy eyes and wished that answers would pop out from nowhere to comfort her steadily rising fears. 

Arian didn't offer a response, and Lana didn't give him the chance to bother thinking about it. "That doesn't matter. If you've got magic withdrawal, something must have happened to dampen your powers. Removing magic from any given person is impossible, but there are poisons out there that can lessen one's magical strength for a short period of time. If enough power is sucked out at once, it can make people feel sick," Lana continued. 

"Poisons?" Arian echoed. His eyes suddenly went wide and ghastly. "The food we ate here last night. We had food sponsored by the town. If something is really going on around here, then chances are the townspeople are somehow involved, and they could have given us something that would lessen our powers. Since Jay is a mortal, it had a direct impact on her, and now she's sick."

Jay wanted to comment on how Arian had only said that she was a mortal, making it seem as if he was in the same category as Lana, but she couldn't bring her tongue to move long enough to form the syllables. Instead, she just stared at the bed, wanting the darkness to creep up behind her and take her into its loving embrace. Sleeping had to be better than staying awake given the circumstances. She doubted that she would feel any better by staying conscious. 

A rumble cut through Jay's stomach, and she recognized that it was hunger. Still, if Arian and Lana's conclusions were correct, chances were high that she didn't even want to try to eat any other items of food from the town. It would only make her sick all over again, and Jay didn't know if she would be able to take that. She felt terrible enough as it was, and her current suffering was only caused by a single meal that wasn't even all that large. 

"The more power someone has, the more they're hurt by magical withdrawal," Lana sighed. "It dampens your magic to a certain level, but that level is the same for everyone. There's a greater divide between a strong mage's withdrawal and a weaker mage's suffering, and I guess that Jay's got a lot more power than we realized... We've got to get out of here. Stopping in this town was a mistake."

"Most of the people around here seem afraid of us," Arian murmured. "It's not like they have a reason to be scared of us... Right? What if there's something around here that's threatening their safety?"

Lana let out a gasp. "It has to be the man from last night! We don't want to mess with him. Chances are he'd only make us feel worse given everything that we've already had to deal with. Come on, guys. Let's get out of here as soon as possible. I don't think that sticking around here is a good idea. We have to find the other Skylian Mages, and we can't do that while we're still here."

"Grabbing food sounds great too," Jay muttered, trying to pretend that the room wasn't actively spinning around her. She was far dizzier than she had ever thought possible, and she couldn't help but wonder if she was on the brink of passing out. That would be the worst possible outcome, but she felt as if she was dangerously close to losing consciousness. 

Jay, Arian, and Lana didn't waste much more time in their room. Everything they had unpacked the night before was hastily thrown back together, and Jay watched as the other two did most of the work. Her mind felt as if it had been shoved inside of cotton before being stuffed back into her head, and her tongue felt too large for her mouth. If this was what magical withdrawal felt like, she never wanted to have to deal with it again. 

Weakening another mage's power was done in some cases under legal situations to ensure that a dangerous criminal didn't break free, but the drugs and spells that caused it in regular people had been banned for a long time. Jay didn't know how the people in Cloudpeak had managed to get their hands on something like that, but she wasn't sure if she wanted the answers either. She already had the sneaking suspicion that she was going to hate whatever she found, and she really wasn't in the mood to put herself through more than she was already dealing with. 

Jay almost didn't notice when they other two were finished with packing, and they helped her to move towards the door of the room. Arian had an arm wrapped around her shoulders while Lana's fingers curled around her torso for extra stability and balance. Jay was internally thankful for their help, but she didn't know how to fully state it, so she simply allowed the silence to fill the space for the time being. 

As the trio moved away from the hotel, Jay's dulled mind attempted to rationalize how the people of Cloudpeak could have come to access such an exclusive and terrifying drug. They were out in the middle of nowhere, so chances were they didn't exactly care for the law. Jay didn't know the people of the town well enough to be sure of how they could have found the drug, so she wound up deciding to push it from her mind since she realized that trying to find an answer was pointless. 

The three mages had been moving through the greater area of Cloudpeak for only a few minutes, trying to find the entrance that Ronan had let them through, and a figure came into view. Speaking of Ronan, he was walking closer to them, and he didn't seem to realize how heavy the situation was. He had a smile on his face, and he waved to them gently. "Hey, you three," Ronan greeted simply. 

Arian and Lana immediately stopped moving, and Jay slowly looked over to Ronan, hoping that he wouldn't notice the scowl that was quickly forming in her eyes. She just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible, and as nice as Ronan was, he was keeping her from being able to eat and get whatever the hell was in her system out of her body. 

"Hey, Ronan," Lana said lightly, barely focusing on the attention Ronan was trying to give them. She didn't say much more than that, and she started to ease the group towards the nearby exit of the town. 

Ronan followed them with a frown on his face. "Is there something wrong? Why are you leaving so soon?" he questioned, not seeming to understand the severity of the situation. His innocence was a breath of fresh air when compared to the intensity that the rest of the town seemed to offer, but Jay couldn't help but find it unsettling given what had happened the night before. She couldn't stop herself from shuddering when a shiver sprinted through her body without warning. 

Lana took a moment to observe him, to fully digest his expression, before offering a response. "We've decided to get going. We haven't been able to find anything of use around here, so we think that it would be best for us to hit the road. Thank you for your hospitality," Lana told him, bowing her head gently in his direction. Jay almost would have been impressed with her sudden about face, but she was far too tired and drained to care. She was so used to thriving off the energy of her own power, and suddenly having that was giving her a serious case of whiplash. She wanted to get out of that damn desert town as soon as possible, and Ronan was simply another obstacle to her. 

"Aw, that's upsetting," Ronan frowned. "You know, I was really hoping that you would stay for just a while longer. We've been waiting to see someone for quite some time, and he just showed up again last night after you guys got here. It's been months since he last came back here, so I guess I was thinking of you three as a little good luck charm of sorts."

"Who came back?" Arian questioned, though the ghastly expression on his face told Jay that he already knew exactly what he was expecting the answer to be. She thought the same thing. It had to have something to do with the strange man that crossed paths with Lana the night before. There was no other explanation she could think of. If something else had happened in a town so small, chances were that they would have heard about it. 

"The mayor of Cloudpeak!" Ronan chirped in response. "His name is Rob Cryai, and he hasn't been around Cloudpeak in quite some time. In all honesty, I was getting worried that we wouldn't get the chance to see him again for ages given how long he tends to be gone at times, but he came back just after you all arrived. I don't know if it had anything to do with you all showing up, but I'm glad that you were able to draw him back here."

"Rob Cryai..." Lana murmured, a frown taking hold of her features. She shook her head a moment later to dismiss any lingering thoughts she may have had. "As nice as it is that we were able to help you all out, I'm afraid that we still won't be able to stay for any longer than we already have. We're on a mission, and while we were thinking that Cloudpeak had something to do with it, we've since been proven wrong, and we have other business to take care of. Thank you for everything, but we'll be going now."

"Aw... What are you doing scurrying off so soon?"

Jay looked up with a frown to see that another man was coming up behind Ronan. The boy's eyes practically lit up as he turned to face the newcomer, and Jay didn't need confirmation to assume that this was the Cryai man that Ronan had been referring to. Her eyes narrowed, but she couldn't tell if it was out of suspicion or exhaustion. Perhaps it was a bit of both. 

The man had pale skin, almost unnaturally close to white, and wore sunglasses. Jay could have sworn that the desert air grew colder as soon as he strayed too close to them, and she had to bite down on her tongue to keep from yelping in surprise at the drastic shift of temperature. Even the steaming morning wasn't enough to prevent the sudden change, and Jay felt nauseous at how sudden it had all been. This wasn't sitting well with her in the slightest, and she just wanted him to leave so that they could get going. 

"Mayor Cryai!" Ronan exclaimed, a wide grin breaking out on his face. "It's good that you're here. These are the guests that I was telling you about this morning. They said that they were just about to head out of Cloudpeak, but I don't think they would mind staying for a little while longer if it meant that we were all able to talk for a few extra minutes."

Jay wanted to object openly, but she couldn't force her lips to part and form the syllables. Instead, she simply looked up at Cryai, almost snarling at the way that his head tilted when he smiled. His eyes were unreadable, and the glint of his darkened sunglasses was too severe for her to see any further than the surface of the plastic. She wanted to get out of Cloudpeak desperately, and she didn't think that she had been that unsettled in quite some time. 

"I wouldn't want to be rude and pressure them into anything," Cryai commented, his voice low and rolling. "Still, if you would like to stick around for a while longer, I would be more than happy to give you the chance to enjoy yourselves in our humble town. I'm sure that you've already picked up on the fact that we don't see many visitors around here, but don't let that stop you. We're more than hospitable enough to see to you three, and I'm sure that you would enjoy your time here."

Something about his tone told Jay that he wasn't going to be taking no for an answer. He was acting casual and conversational, but there was still a threat hiding between the spaces. She wanted to backpedal and get away as quickly as possible, but she couldn't do that as long as Arian and Lana were clinging to her. She couldn't have run off even if she wanted to. She didn't even think that she had a transformation in her. It wasn't often that she transformed these days given that she was trying to keep a low profile, but she still would have done it if it meant getting away from Cryai and his ridiculously creepy excuse for a town. 

"I'm afraid that we really must be going," Lana told him before trying to turn away. Suspicion was rising in her gaze, but she did her best to stifle it, not wanting him to realize that she was aware of what had happened. Her eyes told Jay loud and clear that this was the man from the night before, and her stomach dropped into her stomach. No matter how much he pressured them, they couldn't stay. They had to get out as soon as possible. 

"Your friend is looking a bit tired there," Cryai commented, gesturing to Jay with a light frown. "I understand that you're busy, but even so, I think that you should try to come back to my home and visit with us. We're all nice folk around here, and I believe that we could do you some good. You could use some good food and a nice nap. How does that sound?"

Arian shook his head with a nervous smile. Fear was starting to blossom in his eyes, and alarm bells were clearly ringing like mad in his head. "No, it's really fine," he insisted. "We can take care of her elsewhere, and she's just a little tired. Trouble sleeping every once in a while, you know? We'll get out of your hair now."

Cryai's expression slipped into something shadowed and heavy, but Ronan didn't seem to notice. "If I tell you to stay, you had best stay," he said softly. This time, the threat was far more pronounced than it had been before, and Jay felt as if she was going to be sick, but it wasn't just because of her sudden issues with magical withdrawal anymore. 

Cryai reached out one hand before curling it around Jay's neck, and she would have screamed if she had the energy. He was so cold that it hurt, and she felt pain pricking its way up and down her spine. Her thought process was starting to grow fuzzed and distant, like every idea was nothing more than a faraway memory that she would never be able to fully uncover. He was a man who knew exactly how to get what he wanted, and he wanted nothing more than for them to stay in Cloudpeak for a while longer. 

Before Jay could even register what was happening, Cryai had replaced Arian at her side, and he was walking her away from her teammates. Lana and Arian had perplexed expressions on their faces from behind her, but they were quick to chase after Cryai alongside Ronan. "I'm glad that you decided to take me up on my offer," Cryai said as soon as they started walking, and he had slipped effortlessly back into his previous kind persona as if nothing had gone wrong at all. "It's nice to know that you're still able to trust the people of our humble little town. I know that we're a bit strange, given that we live out here in the desert and all, but it's what works best for us."

Jay's mind was slowly growing hazier, and she was barely able to keep her eyes open. It was as if the ice coursing through Cryai's skin was trying to lull her off to sleep, and she didn't know how to keep herself awake. If her magic had been more active, she would have simply fought him off, but that wasn't an option, and chances were high that it was Cryai's fault that it wasn't an option. 

"Soon enough, you'll see exactly what we're talking about," Cryai suddenly whispered, and a sharpened pain drove into the back of Jay's neck like an icicle among the snow that had coated her body. Her face screwed up in pain, but she made no sound to show her agony. It hurt like hell, but she couldn't do anything aside from stand there. 

Jay was vaguely aware of Lana and Arian shouting her name, but she couldn't make out any other words that left their lips. She was far too out of it, and she wasn't sure what she could do to reach out and grasp the world of light once again. Cryai had certainly taken sudden yet drastic measures to get what he wanted. 

She wasn't positive of if her legs were moving or not anymore, but she could feel the sharpened pain of ice spreading throughout her body. She would liken it to being stabbed, something she had unfortunately experienced in her past battles as an experienced mercenary, and she absolutely hated it. Somehow, this was worse than every other injury she had ever received though, as there was no healer around to cure her pain. In fact, Jay wasn't even sure about if there was any blood. All she could feel was the way her skin crawled with agony as her throat grew tight with the yearning wish to scream. 

"Goodnight," Cryai whispered, and Jay's eyes slipped shut. She couldn't stay awake any longer between the exhaustion and the pain coursing through her body, and her legs began to give way from beneath her. The last thing she was aware of was the way that Cryai's single word echoed in her mind endlessly. Shadows took hold of her a moment later, and she couldn't even begin to fight back before she was unconscious. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's my birthday! Hell yeah!
> 
> -Digital


	13. Chapter Twelve: Secrets in the Sand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jay and Cryai discuss what has been taking place within Cloudpeak.

The first thing Jay felt after waking up was the cold. 

It was powerful and sunk into her bones with immense force, practically pinning her to the spot and preventing anything that even slightly resembled movement. Prying her eyes open was a slow, difficult process, but she could still feel how damn chilly it was. Even shivering seemed like an arduous task no matter how much she wanted to. 

As soon as Jay was able to get her eyes open, she saw that she had been tied down to a chair. Regularly, it would have been no big deal, and she would have been able to free herself in the blink of an eye, but this situation was far different. The cold that dug into her skin was too much for her to bear, and she couldn't find a way to summon her magic. The nausea only made her feel worse, and she was vaguely aware of the familiar sensation that she knew as magical withdrawal. 

Everything came flooding back to her then, and she remembered being in Cloudpeak when Lana realized that something was wrong. Jay didn't know where the hell Lana was, or Arian, for that matter, but she was positive that she had to find a way to get out of there. They had to find the other Skylian Mages. Everyone was counting on her. 

Cryai was the one responsible for this. There had been something odd about him from the very beginning, and he was quick to show his true colors when the group claimed they would be leaving. She didn't understand why he would need to be so hostile, but she had the sneaking suspicion that there was something else driving him. She didn't know for sure what was going on, but she intended to find out. 

"You're awake."

A splatter of cold painted Jay's cheek as her chin was pointed up. Her vision was still slightly blurred, and her peripheral vision was filled with shadows, but she could still recognize Cryai from a few feet away. He had a sickening smirk on his face, and she realized that he was the one holding tightly to her face. 

Jay attempted to thrash, to find a way out, but her body refused to listen. Cryai chuckled to himself, seeming to recognize what she was trying to do, before shaking his head. "You aren't going to be escaping anytime soon... After all, you are of value to me. I'm sure that you know exactly why," Cryai commented. His hand stroked against her cheek once again, and if she had possessed any spare energy, it would have gone towards trembling to fend off the cold that was steadily attempting to suffocate her. 

The truth was that she did know what he wanted from her. She didn't know how he had gotten his hands on that information, but she was positive that it couldn't have been through savory methods. Nobody was supposed to know the truth but her. It had been her secret for as long as she could remember, and the only other person who would have been aware of the truth was dead and had been for quite some time. 

"Cloudpeak holds a secret, you know," Cryai went on, not bothering to give Jay the chance to speak. "It's a twisted tale, one that nobody could ever hope to uncover. In fact, I didn't believe that anyone would come close to learning about what was happening here until you and your friends arrived here. That robot is too intelligent for her own good, but she still isn't what I want."

Jay couldn't shake the feeling that there was something odd about Cryai. The skin between his thumb and pointer finger was pressing against her chin, but she still felt as if something was strange aside from the cold. When she realized what was happening, it hit her with all the force of a tidal wave, and she had to pry her lips apart to get it out. 

"You're not human," she breathed. There was no pulse jumping beneath the surface of his skin. It made too much sense when compared with the other facts she knew about Cryai; he was far colder than any person should have been. He wasn't even alive in the first place, and that was how his skin could be so chilly that it drained all who touched him. He was made of magic, and if Jay had to guess, it was Ice energy that ran through him. 

Cryai pulled back his hand, and his thumb, which had been circling the marking on Jay's cheek, finally stopped moving. "You're very bright," he remarked. "Not many people have been given the chance to find out something that important." He reached up and pulled off his sunglasses, showing the empty sockets where his eyes should have been. The eyes were the window to the soul; it only made sense that he didn't have any given that there was no soul to be witnessed. 

"Are the others here like you?" Jay questioned. She doubted that this was the case, because if it was, the area would have been far colder. Why would the desert air have been so warm if they were all Ice mages who thrived in cooler temperatures? It simply didn't make sense. 

Cryai shook his head. "Oh, no... Of course not. They're all mortal just like you are. They look up to me though. You see, there is an incredibly dangerous volcano nearby, and none of them would be able to control its power if it happened to erupt. Only the strongest of Ice mages are capable of sealing away such strength, and I'm one of the most powerful Ice mages to ever exist. If they want to live without being destroyed by that mountain, they will do what I say, and they have been following my directions for generations to ensure that I am able to get what I want in exchange for their own safety."

"What do you want?" Jay inquired, but she highly doubted that Cryai was going to be forthcoming with an answer. If she wanted to hear the solution, she was going to have to put the pieces together herself, but she didn't think that she had enough information to fully figure out what she was trying to find. 

"Cloudpeak has a secret," Cryai repeated nonchalantly. "Everyone here is aware of why I am here... To a certain degree, that is. They know that I need something found within these borders. They understand that there is something that I find to be incredibly valuable even if they aren't sure of what it is. It's common knowledge at this point... Well, in most cases, if you want to be specific."

Jay's mind was moving far too slowly for her to fully pull everything together, but she was still trying her best to wrestle a solution from the darkest recesses of her mind. Everyone had been so nervous when the group arrived because they could have crossed Cryai somehow, and that would have ended in disaster. The people had been so unsettled upon seeing Lana because they thought she was going to bring them trouble when Cryai returned. Jay's group hadn't interacted much with the people of Cloudpeak, but for the most part, they had expressed nothing but fear and detachment towards the team. 

Cryai's intervention certainly explained the poisoning from he night before. Cryai thought of them as a threat, so he had the people he was blackmailing act in his favor. There wasn't a way for the people of Cloudpeak to escape his grasp, so they did what they had to in order to survive. Cryai was trying to keep them from learning about something, but Jay still had no idea what it could have been. 

As she tried to play back all of the events that she head witnessed since arriving in Cloudpeak, it struck her. She felt as if she had been punched, and her eyes went wide before she had a chance to stop them. Everyone had been nervous, but there had been one person who was almost blissfully ignorant of how peculiar Cryai's behavior was, and she was starting to believe that was important to the mystery of Cloudpeak. 

"Ronan," Jay concluded. "You're here for Ronan." He was the only one who didn't seem to understand that Cryai had malicious intentions. Everyone else was too terrified to leave, but in Ronan's case, he simply didn't appear to understand what was going on. He was immortal, or at least he gave off that impression, but he didn't comprehend the gravity of his own secrets. He hadn't ever been informed of how heavy a truth it was to bear. 

Ronan was an immortal living far away from the reaches of the rest of the world, but it wasn't of his own free will. He was a prisoner even if he didn't know it. Cryai was holding him hostage for some reason or another, but Jay still didn't understand what it could have been. She didn't know what type of magic Ronan had, so how was she supposed to figure out how he could have been valuable? Lana likely would have been able to sense it with her robotic abilities, but her powers had been censored ever since the group arrived in Cloudpeak. 

Wait. 

Lana's abilities had undoubtedly been tampered with on purpose, and Jay was willing to bet that Cryai was involved somehow given how antagonistic he was acting. He had made sure that Lana wouldn't be able to find the truth if she couldn't sense what was happening, so the secret of Cloudpeak would be kept under wraps just as Cryai was hoping for. 

The pieces started to slide into place. Ronan was an immortal. His magic was unknown. Lana's powers had been manipulated to keep her from figuring out what sort of magic was resting in Cloudpeak. Cryai didn't want anyone to enter or leave the city. He was blackmailing everyone to keep something under his control. There was only person who didn't understand what was happening. 

"Oh, Hyperion," Jay whispered, her eyes suddenly even wider than they had been before. 

"You've figured it out," Cryai smirked. "That's right, young one. Ronan is a Skylian Mage, and it's my job to keep him locked within Cloudpeak for the rest of his life. He doesn't understand who he is because I never gave him the chance to find out, and he's never going to stumble upon the truth as long as I am here. I know exactly who you and your friends are, and I'm not going to let you take away my precious prize. He belongs here with the rest of the people of Cloudpeak. I don't care what you want him for; he belongs here."

Jay's mind continued to spin, and she remembered the encounter against the Ice mage in Nadia. She remembered that the battle had been intense, and the other party had been incredibly powerful. Still, there was something about that foe that differed greatly from Cryai. She didn't know how to describe it, but she knew that they were two separate people. Cryai was undoubtedly still part of the puzzle, but she still didn't know who the attacker from Nadia could have been. 

If Cryai wasn't human, chances were that he had been constructed from something. She had already concluded that he was made of Ice magic somehow, and it would take an Ice mage to create him that way. The Ice mage in Nadia had been incredibly powerful, taking out both her and Arian without any hesitation. She had no doubt that they were somehow involved, and as soon as she realized this, everything began to spiral. 

_Cryai was created by the Ice mage from Nadia. He knows that we're trying to gather the Skylian Mages under Lyloc's orders, and he's trying to keep Ronan under his thumb to ensure we fail so that his creator can get away with whatever his grand plan is._

"You're rather bright, you know," Cryai commented with a light smile. "But it isn't as if you're going to be succeeding here. I believe that I can receive incredible money for someone like you. That marking on your face is incredibly valuable to my master, and they would absolutely love to see you. They've been trying to find out more about people like you for quite some time, and it seems that they'll finally have the chance to bridge that gap and calm their endless curiosity. I'm almost glad that you came to Cloudpeak, and believe me when I say that I don't just say that. This is the first time in decades that I've actually enjoyed having unexpected visitors."

"You won't be getting away with this," Jay snarled. She could feel pain starting to sink in again, and she knew that if her hands had been free, she would have been clawing at the tattoo on her cheek. That was the reason that Cryai had taken interest in her in the first place, and even if she couldn't stop him from seeing it anymore, she could still try to hide it so that nobody else could see the marking. 

"I believe that I already have," Cryai chuckled. "You know exactly how valuable you are, and I know that there are many people out there who would pay good money to have you rescued. Perhaps the gods will intervene and wish for your freedom... I wouldn't hold my breath, but I suppose that it will give you something to hope or as the time ticks by."

Cryai's hand fell upon her cheek again, and Jay had to resist the urge to gag at how cold and uncomfortable the contact was. His thumb continued to rub circles on the star marking on her face. "How precious you are... All we need is the other half, and maybe we'd be able to pull off a miracle," he murmured. He pulled back and shook his head. "You are the only one in the Galaxy of Hyperion to possess a special trait this way, you know... It would be a shame if that power fell into the wrong hands... The power of the gods is an incredible thing."

Jay tried to keep her eyes open, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to for much longer than she already had. Cryai was feeding more cold into her body, and her eyelids were starting to droop shut. No matter how much she tried to fight her way back to the light, she failed each time. She prayed with every scrap of remaining coherency that she had that Arian and Lana would come to save her. They had to know the truth about Ronan as soon as possible. Lives were depending on their actions. 

They had found another Skylian Mage, and they needed to get him and the rest of the people of Cloudpeak away from Cryai immediately. 

~~~~~

Lana stared at the place where Cryai and Jay had been a moment before, a frown forming on her lips. They had been present one second and gone the next, and she got the sneaking suspicion that Cryai had teleported them away. She didn't know where Cryai could have taken them, but she had the sneaking suspicion that she knew exactly how to find out. 

Lana's gaze turned to face Ronan. The young man actually looked troubled for the first time since their arrival in Cloudpeak, but he didn't seem to recognize that Lana was staring at him until she tapped one finger against his shoulder. He nearly jumped out of his skin in shock before recognizing who was responsible. 

"Where did he go?" Lana questioned. She knew that Ronan had no way of being sure, but she was willing to cling onto any possibility. They couldn't get out of Cloudpeak without Jay. Even if they had wanted to leave, they wouldn't have been able to gather the Skylian Mages without her. Lana was sure of it even if there was no evidence to support her theories. 

"I bet that he's in his office," Ronan replied. "It's on the opposite end of town near the volcano. It's a dangerous place to go, so we mostly stay away from it unless we have business there... I don't know why he would want to take your friend though. It's not as if he's shown interest like this in anyone else before."

Lana frowned, trying to push aside the anxiety that were quickly bubbling beneath the surface. There was the proof to back up her concerns. She still wasn't going to say anything until she had conclusive evidence, but she was consumed by worry soon afterwards. 

"We have to get her and then get out of here," Arian declared. "Take us over there, Ronan.... And while we're on the way, you can tell us more about that man. I want to know what could push him to do all of this, and you know him far better than either one of us could ever hope to."

Ronan frowned before nodding, gesturing for them to start walking with him. There was always the ability to teleport, but Lana figured that they might as well save their energy. After all, Ronan was going to need some time to tell them about the peculiar behavior behind Cryai, and there was no reason for them to teleport if they were just going to be standing outside of his office for ages hearing about what Ronan had to say. 

"I actually don't remember when he first came here, to be honest," Ronan admitted. "You see, I was born here in Cloudpeak. My family had been living here for a long time, but... We were all in fear of the volcano erupting. There are a lot of powerful Earth mages that could keep it under control, and I was born to a long line of them. I remember going up to the volcano to try and control it, but... Then my memory went black. When I next came to, I learned that a lot of time had passed, and Mayor Cryai woke me up. 

"He said that I had been asleep for ages, but he was going to make it all better. He was made mayor soon afterwards because he was able to keep the volcano from erupting. That was over a hundred years ago. Life has been going on as normal ever since then. Nobody ever leaves or comes in here without his approval. It's been like that ever since I came to, but... I don't know what could have caused the sudden change after all that time with a different routine."

Lana frowned in response. The volcano had clearly caused a disruption in Ronan's memory, but she wasn't sure of why. He likely had Earth magic given the way that he had described his family, but she wondered where they were. She was sure that he would have mentioned it already if his blood relatives were still in Cloudpeak. Perhaps they had suffered some unfortunate fate while he was unconscious. Who was to say how long he had been asleep? It wasn't out of the question for people to slip into lengthy slumbers based in magic. Him being immortal only made that more feasible, and she was going to have to consider the possibility until the pieces fully came together regarding his story. 

"Cryai seems to have complete control over this place," Arian commented, fidgeting nervously with the edge of his ponytail. "I mean, he came in here, and everything about the atmosphere seemed to change." Lana could tell that he was struggling to keep himself from mentioning the sudden and drastic drop in temperature as soon as Cryai showed his face. 

Ronan nodded. "Yeah. He keeps the volcano under control, and he keeps us all safe from the outside world. He's been taking care of me when he gets the chance to ever since I woke up. I was away from the rest of the world for a really long time, but he's helped me to get back into the rhythm of being around people again. I don't know what I would do without him."

"Do you have any idea what he could want with Jay?" Lana questioned. She wasn't believing that Cryai was as good of a person as Ronan was making him sound, and she had to resist the urge to spit bitter words about the man who had taken Ronan in. He clearly wasn't deserving of her mercies. If he had been a good person, he wouldn't have essentially kidnapped Jay for the sake of his own goals. 

Ronan's smile faltered before he shook his head. "I don't know... He hasn't ever been so interested in a person who comes to Cloudpeak. I wish that I could say what was going on with him, but I have no idea... Maybe there's something about her that I don't know about but he does. Do you know anything notable about her?" he asked, his head tilting slightly to the side in genuine curiosity. He was so sweet and innocent that it almost hurt Lana to know that she was going to have to break his heart as soon as Cryai showed his cowardly face again. 

Lana shook her head. "No," she lied. She wasn't going to say anything about her suspicions regarding Jay until after she had managed to talk to the other girl in question. She didn't want to jump to conclusions until she had the suitable evidence needed to say what the other girl was doing with the mission. Lana should have confronted Jay before all of this, but she didn't have time to kick herself for what she had or hadn't done. Jay needed their help in the moment, and Lana couldn't get distracted. 

Lana should have seen the clues the instant that Jay started showing signs of magical withdrawal. In their short period of time together, Lana had never seen Jay transform, but she assumed that Jay was at a higher level of magic. Lana had the natural ability to sense the abilities of others, and she could tell that there was something about Jay that was different from others. Perhaps there was a reason that the other girl rarely ever used her magic. She was clearly trying to keep something hidden, and Lana had the sneaking suspicion she already understood exactly what it was. 

Lana resisted the urge to look over at Arian with curious eyes. He was just as strange to her as Jay was, but she wasn't going to say anything quite yet about him either. There was too much for them to focus on without factoring in the distraction that Arian's exposure would bring. Ronan didn't need to know about either of these facts though; all that mattered was getting Jay as far away from Cryai as possible. 

"I don't know either," Arian replied, his eyes filled with guilt rather than his regular rambunctious expression. "I guess that we'll just have to figure that out after we go to find her. For now, we'll just have to stay on task and away from trouble."

Ronan nodded his understanding. If he noticed that they were lying, he was simply choosing to not say anything, and Lana couldn't fault him for this decision given that she would have done the same had she been in his position. Ronan continued to walk the group closer to Cryai's office at the edge of town, and Lana watched as the volcano came to be closer with each passing step. Her eyes narrowed at it, and she realized what she wanted her next question to be about. 

"What's the issue with the volcano?" she questioned of Ronan. "I get the feeling that there has to be something special about it. If it was simply a volcano, there would be no reason for the people here to settle so close to something that could end in a natural disaster."

"It's a powerful source of magic," Ronan responded. "You see, there are many mages who flock to this space to embrace its Earth and Fire powers. A powerful mage with the right element will be able to keep it under control without any major issues. My family had been doing that for a long time, keeping it from erupting while giving others the chance to come by and see the power that it was capable of gifting."

"I see..." Lana murmured. "What would happen if it did erupt? Would it wipe out everyone in this area, or would its magical powers cause something strange to happen?" She was starting to detect that something was going on involving Ronan, and she couldn't help but wonder if perhaps he was somehow involved with the secret of the volcano and of Cloudpeak as a whole. 

Ronan hesitated before shrugging. "In all honesty, I'm not sure... It's been ages since it last erupted because of the mages here always keeping it from exploding. That's most certainly for the best though, so... I suppose that we're just going to have to press on without having the proper answers. I hope that it's alright with you."

"You said earlier that you went to the volcano to try and control it. Was it trying to erupt just before you fell asleep for ages?" Arian inquired, following up with the very question that Lana was about to ask. 

Ronan nodded. "I was still pretty young at the time, so I wasn't able to fully restrain it. Still, when I came back down from the volcano, it didn't appear to have erupted at all... The people were all different though. Everyone in my family had died, and I heard that it had been over a hundred years since I was last awake and moving around. Cryai was the one who found me, and he brought me down from the mountain to see what had happened within Cloudpeak while I was gone... Everybody said that it hadn't erupted at the point when I went missing, so... I guess that I was able to control it, but something caused me to black out. My memory is kind of fuzzy from that time because of how much magic I was using, so I'm sorry that I can't fill in all the gaps for you."

"It's alright," Lana assured him. She was sure that there was more to the volcanic eruption than Ronan was letting on, but she didn't think that it was going to be easy to push the truth out of him. In fact, she wasn't even positive that he understood what had happened. Ronan seemed sweet and open enough to be truthful when something of this nature was bothering him, especially given how much appeared to be on the line regarding the full truth of what was happening between Jay and Cryai. They were going to need to figure out what was happening with Cryai as soon as possible if they wanted to free her, and Ronan was surely aware of that, so he had no reason to hide the truth. 

The volcano was entirely visible among the sand in the air, and Lana realized that they had likely arrived at their destination. Since she was so close to it, she was certainly able to pick up on the magic that Ronan had said was waiting in its core. He was right when he said that it was a source of immense power. Lana was beginning to assume that it had been responsible for the signal of magic that drew her and the rest of the group to Cloudpeak from the beginning. 

But there was something else bothering her about the situation. The magic that she was picking up from the volcano felt almost identical to the strange power that she was sensing from Ronan. It was clear to her that there was something else going on with him, but she couldn't figure out for the life of her what could possibly make him so similar to the mountain itself. She hadn't ever heard of a phenomena that was quite like this. Even if one's environment did rub off on their magic, it had never been to this degree, and Lana couldn't help but wonder if there was something else strange going on with him. She didn't have any solid evidence that he was peculiar since she knew that her sensors had been faulty ever since her arrival in Cloudpeak, but it was still something she wanted to try and dig deeper on. 

However, that would have to wait until later. Soon after the volcano appeared in her line of sight, Lana was able to see a small building squatting at the base of the peak. She knew that it had to be the office that Ronan suspected Jay had been taken to. She couldn't help but wonder why Cryai had chosen to teleport to a building so close to the scene where he had disappeared from. Perhaps the plan was to taunt Lana and Arian into chasing after him, knowing that Ronan would give them directions to his location. 

In other words, it was a trap, and they were walking right into it without a moment of hesitation. 

Then again, it wasn't as if they had much of a choice. Lana and Arian weren't going to be leaving Cloudpeak without Jay, and they both already knew that she wouldn't be able to get out on her own given the way that her magic had been drained. That left the rescue mission in their hands, and Lana could have cared less about if it was a trap or not. She just wanted to get Jay back and then get the hell out of there. 

She took a step forward and closed her hand around the doorknob before twisting it as a light sigh left her lips. 

_Here goes nothing._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update time!
> 
> -Digital


	14. Chapter Thirteen: Bringers of Salvation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arian, Lana, and Ronan break into Cryai's office to rescue Jay.

Arian really didn't know what to think when he saw the space outside of the mayor's building completely empty. Sand blew gently through the area, but there were no guards to be found. He wanted to believe that it was a good thing, a sign that they were destined to succeed, but he had the sneaking suspicion that this was far from being true. Somehow, this was going to be a trap, and he, along with Lana and Ronan, were going to be sucked in with no chance of escape. They didn't even know where Jay was, so how were they supposed to pull this off? It wasn't as if this was going to stop Arian given how important rescuing the brown-haired girl was, but he still knew that this was going to be far from easy, and he was simply going to have to put up with it. 

Ronan walked forward and pushed open the door, gesturing for the rest of the trio to follow after him as he entered the building. Arian gave the outside of the office one last examination before sighing and trailing after Ronan. Lana took up the rear, and she shut the door behind them. Everything about her posture was tense and on edge, a clear contrast from Ronan, who while nervous, still seemed to be managing to keep his composure at least slightly. Arian felt like his nerves were going to drive him crazier and crazier the longer he was around the two because of how anxious they were. 

Ronan led the others through the rest of the building, and he occasionally gave glances over his shoulder to ensure that he didn't lose anybody along the way. When he was sure that he still had the whole team there, he nodded to himself, murmuring that this was a good thing, before continuing to walk towards their destination. Arian felt as if there was an itch just beneath his skin that he wouldn't be able to scratch no matter how hard he tried. He was positive that it was caused by his own fear, and he prayed with everything that he had that this wasn't a trap. He knew better than to believe it though, so he simply stuck to being brazenly optimistic despite being sure that it wasn't going to pay off in the long run. 

The tour of the office seemed agonizingly slowly. Ronan wasn't even taking them through all of the smaller areas, instead concentrating only on taking the group towards the area where he suspected Jay would be. Arian was more than thankful for this, deciding pretty early that he detested the atmosphere of the office and would never return there of his own volition. As soon as they rescued Jay, he was going to have them teleport away and never go back. In fact, maybe it would be a good idea for them to destroy the building outright before retreating just to make sure that Cryai would never be able to use it for his nefarious deeds ever again. 

As soon as the door came into view, Arian knew that it was the one. He stopped walking a few feet in front of it, casting Ronan a nervous glance when the other boy halted in his motions as well. Ronan gave both Arian and Lana a sympathetic gaze before turning his attention back to the door. Ronan was confused and didn't understand why Cryai had betrayed him, but that didn't mean that he was going to be stopping the others from powering through to rescue Jay. Ronan knew that Cryai was in the wrong for abducting her, and even if he had his own reservations out of anxiety, he was going to do his best to save her. 

It didn't take long for all of them to agree that they had come to the right conclusion, and Ronan reached one hand out to curl it around the knob of the door before them. He twisted it slowly, and Arian tried to ignore the way that his heart was speeding its pounding in his chest. He failed, and as soon as he started thinking about it, he simply couldn't stop. Lana seemed far more composed, but there was still something determined and shadowed about her gaze that unsettled him. Damn it, he wasn't cut out for this. 

All of his worries seemed to melt away as soon as he saw the inside of the room though. He let out a gasp, and his hands clapped over his chest when he realized who was waiting for them. Just as Ronan had suspected, Jay was inside, and she seemed to be relatively unharmed. She was tied to a chair, and she looked just as exhausted and droopy as she had when she was dragged away from her team. When the door opened, she managed to pry her head away from her chin, but panic soon filled her eyes, and the anxiety came rushing back into Arian's body all over again. 

"What are you--" Lana suddenly questioned, and Arian realized that she was turning around because Jay was looking at something behind them. Arian didn't know if he wanted to see what had appeared in the doorway of the room, but he knew that he didn't have much of a choice in the matter. Slowly but surely, he forced himself to swivel on the spot to investigate. 

Cryai was standing in the entryway, and one of his hands held at his sunglasses. There were empty voids where his eyes should have been, and Arian had to actively resist the urge to scream as soon as he saw them. He didn't understand how anyone could have been so terrifying, but then again, he had seen a lot of ridiculous things since first crossing paths with Jay. A voice in the back of his head whispered that he shouldn't have been as shocked as he was, but he couldn't manage to follow its advice no matter how hard he tried. 

"You've made a mistake by coming here," Cryai suddenly drawled. He folded his sunglasses and nonchalantly shoved them into the pocket of his suit trousers. He took an ambling step towards Arian, Lana, and Ronan, and Arian could have sworn that the the temperature in the room took a sudden nosedive for the freezing. A chill sprinted up his spine, but he couldn't escape it no matter how hard he tried. He wished that he had Fire magic to fight it off, but since that was outside of the realm of possibility, all he could do was stare. 

"What do you want from Jay?" Lana asked sharply, clearly far more experienced in dealing with these situations than Arian could ever hope to be. The Skylian Mage had sunk into a combative stance and thrown out one hand out to the side to ensure that Cryai didn't take any cheap shots at Ronan or Arian. The blonde boy most certainly appreciated her defensive gesture, knowing that he wouldn't last a minute the instant Cryai decided it would be fitting to turn his magic against the intruders. 

Cryai laughed, but the sound was hollow and lacked anything that even came close to resembling emotion. Arian shivered, but this time, it had nothing to do with the cold that hung in the air like a suffocating curtain. "I think you should ask her that yourself," Cryai replied with a small shrug. "After all, she's fully aware of why I brought her here; she simply didn't want to explain it to you."

Arian wanted to ask them what he was talking about, but he couldn't force his lips to move. Besides, he was positive that Cryai wasn't going to answer his inquiries no matter how many times he pressed the issue, so all he could do was bite his tongue and talk to Jay about it after the fact. Until that time came, they were going to have to fight, and Arian could only hope against the odds of the world that he, along with the rest of the group, was able to get out of this mess intact. 

Lana was the first one to act, and she snapped her other arm, the one that wasn't loosely guarding Arian and Ronan, through the air. The sky around Cryai seemed to ripple, and he was pushed backwards a few feet. Lana slashed both of her arms inwards, prompting currents of wind to appear from nowhere and press the door shut. Lana smirked to herself, but it was clear that the action was stilted and forced. 

Lana was whirling around towards Jay in the blink of an eye, and she started to dash over to the other girl with intentions of untying the ropes that held her down. Arian followed suit, but he knew that it wasn't going to be that easy. The closing of a door wasn't going to stop Cryai, someone who gave the image of being demonic after merely one glance. Cryai was going to find a way back inside, and when he did, the fight that ensued was going to be a ridiculously close one. 

Arian liked to believe that he was a powerful mage and fighter, but he had enough intelligence to be fully aware that he was nowhere near as strong as Lana or Jay. With the latter out of commission, that meant Arian was going to have to try and carry the battle alongside Lana. There was no guarantee that Ronan was going to be able to help in the slightest, so Arian and Lana would just have to hope that Cryai was going to be a weak opponent. 

Unfortunately for them, Arian knew fully well that such was never going to be the case. 

He and Lana were only able to get through about a quarter of the work that it was going to take to untie Jay's arms when the door snapped open again. Arian let out a shriek that he knew sounded pathetic, but he couldn't bring himself to bite his tongue in his moment of terror. Instead, he simply glanced over to Lana and prayed that the Skylian Mage had any ideas as to what they were supposed to be doing. 

Lana responded by launching herself away from where Jay was sitting, leaving Ronan to help Arian with untying the ropes. Ronan glanced around the room in concern for a moment before sighing and closing his eyes with something that appeared to be resignation. Arian wanted to ask what the hell he was doing when there were important things to be done, but he was cut off as soon as the ground began to shift beneath them. Arian almost stumbled, but he didn't wind up falling completely. 

A column of rock came up from the ground, and Arian was able to throw out an arm to grab onto it before he fully fell over. He gave a thankful glance over to Ronan, realizing that the other boy had been responsible for his salvation. Ronan didn't offer a blatant reply, instead focusing on reaching into the column of rock that had risen through both the sand and the floor of the building. There was something inside, and Ronan fiddled for it mindlessly before a gasp left his lips and his fingers closed around the object in question. 

It was a gemstone, sharpened to perfection and perfect for cutting something. Arian let out a gasp of surprise before his expression broke out into a grin. He watched as Ronan began to slash away at the ropes with a surprising amount of ease, and it only took a few seconds before Jay's left arm had been freed completely. Her ankle was halfway through being cut loose only a moment later. 

A blast of ice managed to make its way past Lana, cutting the air apart as it flew in the space between Jay's head and Arian's torso. He had to resist the urge to scream, instead concentrating his attention on seeing where the ice made contact with the nearby wall. As soon as the energy hit the building, it began to spread, crawling along the boundaries of the room rapidly. Somehow, the temperature dropped even further, and Arian shivered once again. This time around, his shudder had everything to do with how cold it was.

Lana jumped towards Cryai, her fist crackling with turquoise electricity. She landed a powerful punch on Cryai's side, but it didn't have anywhere near the intended effect. Cryai stumbled backwards, but he didn't react otherwise, and he somehow seemed even more angry than before. It was harder to read his emotions given there were empty sockets on his face instead of eyes, but the rage on his face was still clear despite this boundary, and Arian forced himself to look away to keep from being petrified out of terror. 

Another slash from Ronan allowed Jay's left leg to be moved around once again, and the brown-haired girl let out a sigh of relief. She rubbed at her ankle with her free hand, but it was clear that she was still in pain. Adrenaline was doing some of the work to keep her upright, but she was still distracted, and it wasn't as if Arian could blame her in the slightest. He would have been anxious in her situation as well. Hell, he was nervous enough as it was, and his heart felt like it was going to explode forth from his chest if he wasn't careful about controlling himself. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to go about that, so he instead concentrated on the battle at hand. 

Cryai tried to send out another blast of ice, but this time, Lana was more than able to block it. She threw up one arm to create a shield out of swirling wind, and the blockade transitioned into becoming a twister. It sent the ice power flying back towards Cryai with increased force. She glared at Cryai with everything that she had, seemingly praying silently that she was going to be able to do some damage to him this time. 

Cryai was naturally immune to the damage done by Ice attacks because of his element, but that didn't stop him from feeling the pain of the force caused by the strike. He smirked at first, not seeming to care, but as soon as he was hit by the blow, his face was wiped clean of that damn smile. Cryai didn't give any of them the dignity of hearing him scream, instead simply flying backwards until his back slammed into the hallway outside the door. Arian couldn't help but cringe at the loud sound Cryai's body made as soon as it made contact with the wall, and he thought his rapid heart almost skipped a beat out of terror. Once again, he thought about how he wasn't cut out for this in the slightest, and his nerves seemed ready to murder him from the inside out. 

Arian let out a gasp as soon as he felt a hand on his arm, and he had to resist the urge to lash out with a magical strike. When he looked over, he could see that the culprit was Jay though, and she was using his arm to steady herself as she rose to her feet. She somehow looked even more exhausted than before, but there was something in her eyes that told Arian she had to talk to him as soon as possible. 

Arian looked down and saw that Ronan had finished cutting Jay loose with the gemstone, and the boy was now furiously glancing back and forth between Cryai and Jay nervously. He didn't seem to be able to sit still all of a sudden, and Arian had the sneaking suspicion that it had everything to do with Cryai. The Ice mage was slowly starting to rise to his feet, shuffling towards Lana with pure hatred in his eyes. 

"We have to talk," Jay suddenly said, but Arian couldn't tell who she was talking to. When he glanced over at her, he saw that her eyes were glossy and facing towards the ground below. She looked so strange and so unlike her regular self that it was almost terrifying to see. Arian suppressed the urge to shiver in response, knowing that it wouldn't accomplish anything but wanting to do it anyways. 

"It's going to have to wait," Lana declared. She unleashed yet another blast of wind towards Cryai, effectively pinning him against the wall. "I'm usually against this, but I don't think that we're going to be getting out of here unless we can kill him."

Arian practically froze on the spot. As much as he understood the situation, knowing that there was no other way out, he hated the idea with everything he was. Cryai wasn't a real person and he was fully aware of such, but that didn't mean that he didn't feel terrible about it. Arian hated the idea of ending another life regardless of the situation. He couldn't go back to that. 

_You aren't there. You're here. Everything is okay. You aren't going to have to do it. Let Lana handle it. You and Ronan need to look after Jay in the first place._

The thoughts repeated in Arian's mind like they were part of a mantra, the only anchor keeping him tethered to the regular world without completely bursting. He could feel a panic attack coming on between the stress of the situation and Lana's suggestion, but he tried to keep himself relatively calm by shoving it to the side and focusing on something else. 

Arian hooked one arm around Jay's torso, and he was almost surprised when she leaned against the contact rather than pulling away from it. As far as he could tell, Jay was the independent type, always knowing how to take care of herself and not needing to rely on the assistance of others to get work done. If Arian hadn't appeared, she never would have asked another person for help in finding the rest of the Skylian Mages. It simply wasn't in her nature, and Arian was fully aware of such. 

She was silent as Ronan wrapped one of his arms around Jay's shoulders, and the three started to move away from the doorway where Lana was taking care of Cryai. Arian glanced around furiously to try and find a way for them to escape, but his heart dropped as soon as he realized that there wasn't a place for them to go through. They were stuck. This had been part of Cryai's plan all along. 

Ronan appeared to have come to the same conclusion, and he bit down on his lip as he glanced around the area in fear. "We can't get out!" he cried out in panic. "Mayor Cryai is blocking the entrance, and there's no other way for us to escape without going through that door!"

Arian was left to try and fumble with the pieces they had been given, knowing that he was in a less panicked state than Ronan. This was all up to him, but he hated that. He was no good with stress like this. He never had been. How was he supposed to help everybody out of this situation? 

Suddenly, he let out a gasp, and he fully took Jay away from Ronan. The other boy looked at him in bewildered confusion, but he never had the chance to ask Arian what was happening. "You have Earth magic, right?" Arian questioned. 

Ronan nodded. "Y-Yeah... I've always had it," he commented. Arian realized that this implied there was magic he didn't always have, but he figured that he would have time to ask about that later. There simply wasn't time, and the last thing he needed was to be put under even greater pressure because of how terribly this was all going. 

"In that case, tunnel a hole through the floor for us to go through!" Arian declared. He was still holding Jay tightly to make sure that she didn't fall over, so he couldn't point at the ground, but he got the impression that Ronan understood what he was implying even without the gesture. 

Ronan's eyes lit up, and he nodded in response before closing his eyes and concentrating all of his energy on the place where his feet met the ground. His body began to glow, and the earth started to shake under his influence. A hole opened up, and a tunnel slowly but surely started to create itself. Arian felt as if he was riding the edge of a blade as he waited for Ronan to finish. He understood that creating an escape route like this was going to take some time, but he wasn't sure how much longer Lana would be able to keep Cryai at bay. If he managed to find a way to reach Arian, Ronan, and Jay while they were distracted, there was no telling what would happen. 

Lana rushed toward Cryai as soon as he managed to escape her grasp this time, and she created a blade of electricity before taking hold of it in her left hand. She slashed it towards Cryai, but he managed to deflect the attack by throwing up his right arm. A shield of ice formed between the sword and his body, but Lana didn't stop there. She continued to slash wildly at him, taking advantage of every weakness that showed itself in his posture. Cryai moved quickly, but Lana was just as fast, if not somehow even faster, and she was showing herself to have the upper hand. 

Cryai ducked below one of Lana's strikes, and he lashed out with a kick. Even as Lana's feet were swept from beneath her, she didn't allow herself to be deterred. She used the sword to push herself back up, jumping above another kick before slashing forward with the lightning blade to slice open an injury on Cryai's side. 

Arian stole a glance over his shoulder at the fight, and he let out a yelp when he saw the injury. However, no blood leaked forth from the cut. Instead, pale blue magic began to drip downwards, and Arian knew that this was more than sufficient proof that Cryai wasn't a human. He was made from Ice magic, so there was no way for him to have blood unless his creator actually put that much effort into his creation. It appeared that was not the case though, so there wasn't as much for Arian to feel sorry for when the time came for Cryai to be struck down. 

He was going to feel sorry no matter what, but this was a small consolation that he knew he was going to need. 

Lana followed up with yet another stabbing attack in the direction of Cryai, but he managed to dodge it this time. Lana punched at the air, and a sudden torrent of wind was sent flying from her fist. Cryai was sent backwards by the impact, and Lana took advantage of this to stab towards him once again. 

This time, the lightning sword did hit its intended target, and Cryai was left to scream in pain when he couldn't hold himself back anymore. The blade had pierced his shoulder, and there was even more pale blue fluid leaking everywhere now. Arian tried not to be sick. He had never been good with blood, and even if this wasn't actually blood, he still felt terrible about it all. 

Suddenly, Arian's head whirled around when he heard a gasp mixed with a laugh come from Ronan's direction. He glanced over to see that Ronan had pressed his hands against his chest before looking down into the tunnel below. A smile burst out across his features, and he let out a heavy sigh. "There it is! We can get out of here now!" he exclaimed. Ronan gestured for Arian to follow him as he jumped into the tunnel. Ronan landed in a crouch at the bottom of the rocky shaft. It was only about a ten foot drop, but Arian didn't think he would be able to go down there without risking getting hurt. He was still holding tightly to Jay, and letting her go was sure to be a recipe for disaster. 

Ronan suddenly let out a gasp, seeming to have come to the same conclusion, and he snapped his fingers. The ground began to tremble once again, but this time, it was beneath Arian's feet rather than Ronan's, and when Arian glanced down, he saw that there was a slide below him. 

A small incline had been created to funnel Arian and Jay into the tunnel, and Arian was falling before he realized what was happening. He glided on his back down into the shaft, still holding onto Jay's torso to make sure that she didn't get hurt along the way. He let out a strangled cry of surprise before landing. When Arian looked down, he realized that he was somehow still on his feet. He didn't even want to ask how that had happened, but he suspected that Ronan had something to do with it. 

Ronan took up his place on the other side of Jay soon afterwards, and both boys continued to help her move. There was something glassy about her eyes, and she didn't seem to be able to keep herself from staring at Ronan. Somehow, Arian was able to guess that whatever Jay wanted to talk to him about had something to do with Ronan. He didn't understand what about Ronan could have merited so much attention all of a sudden, but he had the sneaking suspicion that he was going to find out soon enough. 

Arian barely noticed it as he continued to walk through the tunnel, and he didn't realize that they had reached the end until after light had already come down to splash on his face. There was yet another shaft at the other side, and it was about teen feet beneath the surface of the desert sands. 

Ronan began to manipulate the area to create yet another incline, though this one was far more subtle and took longer to craft since it was intended to help them get up rather than the other way around. Arian watched him impatiently, glancing down at Jay in curiosity. Her head was hanging low, and she was staring at the ground since Ronan had left her immediate range of vision. 

Arian's heart felt like it skipped a beat out of panic. He didn't understand why this had to be happening. What about him had caused Lyloc to choose him to gather the Skylian Mages? He wasn't cut out for this. Jay was the one hurt, but somehow, Arian was feeling it too, and he wasn't sure if he would ever be able to escape the pressing sensation. He wasn't meant to be a fighter. 

No. That wasn't true. He was meant to be a fighter; he simply chose not to be. 

Once Ronan was finished working on their escape tunnel, he gestured for Arian to follow him. They were up on ground level again in no time, and Arian practically collapsed as soon as they were back in the warm sunshine. It was nowhere near as hot as he thought it should have been, and he knew that was because Cryai was so close. He was able to drop the temperature no matter where he was, and the middle of the desert was no exception. 

Suddenly, Arian heard a scream, but it sounded faraway and detached. He glanced around to find its origin point, but he was never able to. He was cut off before Lana suddenly burst through the ceiling of the building. Her hands were curved together above her head to make her look like a torpedo, and the wind around her was churning rapidly to ensure that she was able to break through the roof. 

Lana was alone. Cryai wasn't there. 

When Lana next lashed out, it was with a fierce blast of electricity, and the building began to crumble into nothingness. It didn't catch fire as one would have expected, instead simply rupturing from the inside out. Arian watched with morbid fascination, not sure of how this could have been happening but not caring enough to find the answer regarding it all. His heart skipped a beat in his chest, and he wondered when he would finally get the chance to rest. 

Lana finished destroying the building soon afterwards, leaving behind only a husk of wood and splinters atop the sand. She levitated towards where the rest of the group was waiting, and she touched down delicately onto the ground. "I'm glad to see that you're all fine," she said, sounding oddly conversational even though Arian knew what she had just done. 

She killed Cryai. She must have. 

"We should get out of here," Arian suggested, not wanting to look at the remnants of the building any longer. Jay, who was still weakly limp in his arms, nodded her slow agreement. Arian didn't even bother looking over to Ronan, knowing that he was going to answer the exact same way. They were going to escape from Cloudpeak, and Ronan was going to be coming with them. Arian didn't know where the thought came from, but he was somehow positive that this wasn't going to be the last they saw of the other boy. 

Arian was only able to get a few steps away from the building before the ground began to shake once again. He looked over at Ronan and realized that this had nothing to do with the other boy. No, there was something far greater involved with the trembling of the sand, and Arian wasn't sure if he wanted to know what it was. 

Somehow though, he was fully aware that the volcano was responsible before he even looked up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Getting this out early since I've got a watch party today woo
> 
> -Digital


	15. Chapter Fourteen: Expansion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The volcano threatens to give way in the wake of Cryai's defeat.

Jay tilted her face to the sky as soon as the ground started to shake, and she had to resist the overpowering urge to lay down, curl into a ball, and block out the rest of the world. The events that had transpired in Cloudpeak were more than enough action for her, and the matter of her magical withdrawal was not helping in the slightest. If she wasn't careful, she knew that she was going to collapse, but there wasn't much of anything she could do to stop it given the circumstances. 

"You killed Cryai, didn't you?" came the sudden whimper of Arian, and Jay looked up at him in shock, not expecting him to sound so fearful. Still, she supposed that it made sense, and he appeared to have come to the same conclusions that she had. 

Lana nodded, knowing that the question was aimed at her. "I didn't have a choice," she murmured, and Jay knew that Lana was right. Cryai clearly wasn't going to be backing down, and if they wanted to get out of Cloudpeak, they were going to have to get rid of him. He was insistent on keeping Ronan within the borders of Cloudpeak as well, and that only made the problem worse. If they were going to gather the Skylian Mages, they had to free Ronan from his grasp, but that simply wouldn't have been possible as long as Cryai remained alive. 

Of course, this came with more than a few consequences, and the volcano was quickly establishing itself to be one of the more frustrating problems when it came to the aftermath. Cryai had been keeping the volcano from bursting for many years as far as she could tell, and his death meant that the powerful Ice magic that had been keeping the peak from exploding into flames was gone. There was nothing stopping the volcano from letting out lava for the first time in generations, and if its inevitable rupture was strong enough, it would wipe out all of Cloudpeak. Hell, it could have gone all the way out to the City of Steel, destroying all of Lana's hard work in the blink of an eye, and her people, once protected under the glass dome, would be trapped beneath the very thing that kept them safe as the flames grew stronger. 

"Ronan, you're an Earth mage, aren't you?" Lana suddenly questioned, her words catching Jay by surprise. Lana had turned back to face Arian, Jay, and Ronan, and her eyes glimmered with determination. Ronan had only been given the chance to nod his head slightly before Lana was dashing towards him, and she wrapped her hand around his wrist. Ronan was surprised at first, but he didn't pull away, seeming to understand the urgency of the situation. 

As soon as Ronan was secured in her grasp, Lana thrust her other hand downwards, creating a puff of Air magic that sent them both flying skywards. They disappeared into the blue void above, leaving behind only Jay and Arian on the ground. Jay watched them, longing to say something but not sure of what words would even fit the situation. Her tongue felt too large for her mouth again, as if her brain was swelling inside of her skull and on the verge of bursting. 

"I should go and help them," Arian suddenly said, and Jay knew that he was right before he even had the chance to finish speaking. He slowly eased Jay back down onto the desert sands before rising to his feet and looking back to the mountain. He was terrified, and anyone could see it, but he didn't let that stop him. He gave Jay a small yet anxious wave before taking off, using his magic to levitate through the air. 

Jay watched as he vanished from sight the same way that Lana and Ronan had a few moments earlier, and she swallowed nervously. So much was happening all of a sudden, and she had no idea how she was supposed to handle it. Cryai had revealed some incredibly key information to the truth behind all that had happened in the past, but she still needed a few pieces of the puzzle to fully to piece everything together. 

What she knew was that Ronan was one of the Skylian Mages. He had been for quite some time, and he was an immortal the same way that Lana was. He had been in Cloudpeak for much of his life, and Cryai was taking advantage of that to hide him from the rest of the world. Jay didn't need to ask to know why Cryai wanted him hidden, but the confirmation that it was for the Ice Lakinya made a striking amount of sense. 

She felt cold inside despite the hot air of the desert as she thought about her battle in the remains of Nadia before Lana had joined her company. She hated this situation more than she could have ever hoped to describe, but there wasn't anything that she could do to unravel it. After all, she couldn't jump up to the top of the mountain and seal the mountain off no matter how much she wanted to. Her magic was too weak, and she didn't want to bog down the other members of her team by forcing them to look after her when there were so many lives on the line. 

So Jay kept looking up at the mountain, waiting for something to change. She knew that in this situation, no news was good news, but she still hated it. She needed to know something, to be sure that her companions were alright, but there were no signs of salvation that showed themselves, so she continued to stare silently while waiting for a reprieve. Jay needed to tell them everything about Ronan as soon as possible. She wasn't even sure if he was aware of who he truly was, but she was going to do what she could to help him through the revelation. 

Of course, that would have to wait until after the mountain was dealt with, and there wasn't anything she could do to fix the unfortunate circumstances she had found herself in. Jay pulled her knees up to her chest and continued to watch the peak that pierced the skies above. She had to bite back a pessimistic thought about how perhaps curling into a ball and letting the world pass her by wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. 

~~~~~

As soon as Lana and Ronan touched down on the top of the mountain, she glanced around furiously to see where Cryai had sent his magic. After all, he had likely placed a sheet of Ice magic that kept the mountain from exploding, and it was there that they would have to focus their energy if they were going to prevent an eruption. 

Ronan seemed to know the area by heart though, and he didn't even give Lana a second glance as he dashed off to investigate. She swallowed dryly before chasing after him. Arian arrived behind her a moment later, but she didn't check to make sure that it was him. There wasn't exactly anybody else that it could have been. She had stabbed Cryai through the chest using a blade of electricity, and Jay was stuck on the ground because of her magical withdrawal. The occupants of Cloudpeak were too terrified to do much of anything, as fear was part of their daily routine, so there wasn't exactly anyone else that it could have been. 

Lana followed Ronan over to the area that had caught his attention, and she watched as he fell to his knees and clasped his hands together. He looked as if he was praying, but Lana knew better than to make such assumptions. The tremors of the volcano seemed to calm soon afterwards, and she couldn't help but smile to herself at knowing that Ronan was responsible. The ground was still shaking gently, but the trembling was nowhere near as violent as it could have been, and that was all she could have asked for given the situation at hand. 

Ronan's knuckles almost turned white under the force of his grip, and Lana watched as his face slowly grew tight with tension. Sweat started to bead on his face, and it had nothing to do with the heat that surrounded theThe volcano was still calming itself, and she bit down on her tongue to keep her nerves from getting to her. She knew that everything was going to be fine, but she still hated living in suspense. Ronan was an Earth mage, and if his story was to be believed, his family had been keeping the volcano under control for a great many years before Cryai appeared. He knew how to handle the peak's rage, so there was nothing to worry about, but that didn't keep her from practically vibrating under the influence of her own nervous energy, simply wanting everything to be over. 

Lana glanced out of the corner of her eye to see if the volcano was spewing anything hot or molten yet, but she was pleasantly surprised to see that Ronan was able to keep it all under control. He was starting to relax, and the trembling of the ground below was vanishing as well. They were actually going to be able to keep this under control. She was worried still about the potential for the situation to turn sour on a dime, but she decided to shelve her concerns in favor of the immediate danger staring directly at her and the rest of the group. 

As Ronan slowly pulled his hands apart, Lana realized that he had completely finished calming the mountain down. She allowed her shoulders to relax, and a sigh pushed its way free from between her lips. "I guess that's it," she murmured, trying to hide how anxious she had been for those few fleeing moments. 

Ronan nodded. "Yeah... This time, I was actually able to keep it all together," Ronan whispered, and Lana had to resist the urge to ask him what he was talking about. She still wanted more details about what he had done prior to meeting Cryai so many years before. Still, she assumed that would be able to wait until after they had gotten off the volcanic mountain. She didn't know how much more pressure she was going to be able to take of just standing in the vicinity of the peak. 

"We should go and see Jay again," Arian suggested, working the skin on his lip between his teeth. He gestured for Lana and Ronan to follow after him, and they both nodded before trailing after him. 

Lana gestured for them both to come in close, and she created a sphere of wind to carry them down to the base of the mountain. When they landed, they were a few feet away from Jay, who was sitting on the sand with her legs pulled in tightly to her chest. She didn't even seem to notice that they had returned at first, and it wasn't until Jay's body was completely in the shadow of the trio of newcomers that she actually looked up. 

"We're okay," Lana assured Jay when she saw a flicker of panic appear in the other girl's eyes. She crouched down beside Jay before helping her up to her feet. Jay stumbled at first, and Lana couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt, wondering just how hard the magical withdrawal was hitting her. She had a few theories, but she didn't want to call the other girl out on it just yet. There wasn't enough evidence for that. 

Even if Lana had wanted to bring it up, she didn't have the chance. Jay glanced around at the rest of the group, a frown on her face. "I think that we should talk about all that's happened," she whispered. The words were weak and uncertain, but she still managed to get them out, and Lana almost thought that was all she could do given the circumstances. 

"We can go back to my home and talk," Ronan suggested, a gentle smile on his face. Lana had to admit that he was holding up surprisingly well after all that had happened involving Cryai's sudden betrayal. She could ask him later about how he was feeling. After they settled down to talk, she would have more than enough time to strike up a conversation. 

There weren't any objections to Ronan's offer, and the group made their way back to his home in heavy silence. Lana was the one tasked with helping Jay over there, and she couldn't help but look down at the girl in her grasp every once in a while. She knew that Jay was going to be fine after she got the chance to rest and eat something that wasn't blatantly poisoned with illegal materials, but she worried regardless. 

Lana barely even realized when they were at Ronan's home, and she glanced up in stunned silence as soon as she realized that Arian and Ronan had both stopped walking from their place a few feet ahead of her. She looked down at the ground as Ronan pushed the door open, and she was walking before she knew it, though she wasn't sure if she had actively given her mind the command to move. The day had taken so much out of her, and it had only been a few hours since she first woke up. 

"I think that we have a lot to discuss," Arian commented as the quartet settled down in the living area. Arian and Ronan were both sitting alone in different chairs while Jay was leaning up against Lana. 

"You can sleep if you want," Lana told Jay with a stiff frown when she saw the girl's head slipping forward. She squeezed Jay's hand for an extra bit of reassurance. "I don't think that either one of them would mind if you decided to take a nap before we left."

Jay shook her head, but it was clear that she was trying to resist the urge to take Lana up on her offer. "No... There's something I want to tell you all about. It's really important," she said. Her syllables were hard to tell apart, but Lana got the feeling that it would be impossible to force Jay to rest until after she had spoken her piece. Jay seemed to be incredibly stubborn, and Lana figured that it would be best to not waste her breath on a pointless cause. 

"What is it?" Arian questioned, tilting his head to the side. He was clearly doing far better than he had been before thanks to being away from the excessive stress of the earlier portions of the day. He was far from being as chipper as he usually was, but Lana couldn't blame him for still being tense. She wasn't doing much better, if she was being perfectly honest. 

"Cryai told me something when I was being held hostage," Jay began to say. "He said that he wasn't always here in Cloudpeak, but he came here when he needed to keep something safe from the rest of the world. I... I learned what it was, and his motives were far from being what we expected from the very beginning. He's been keeping tabs on somebody who lives within Cloudpeak for a long time. The person who created him told him to stay in the area to ensure that a certain figure didn't step out of line."

Lana tried to hide her surprise, but she quickly realized that such a task was impossible. "What was he after then?" she questioned. Part of her was already starting to understand, and she gave a brief glance over to Ronan out of the corner of her eye. If he noticed that she was staring, he chose not to acknowledge it. His gaze was glassy with a mix of confusion and shock from all that had happened in the past few hours, and Lana had to admit that she felt bad for how overwhelmed he clearly was because of the actions of Cryai. 

"A Skylian Mage is hiding in this town," Jay explained, letting out a small sigh. "As soon as Cryai learned the truth, he was sent over here to make sure that they didn't get out, and he's been here ever since."

"Skylian Mages are immortal, aren't they?" Arian questioned, giving Lana a brief glance. When she nodded in response, his gaze shifted over to Ronan, and he seemed to put the pieces together about what Jay was trying to imply. "Wait... Ronan, how about you tell us your story from the very beginning? Don't leave anything out."

Ronan hesitated at first, and he looked down at the ground before nodding. He seemed to understand that the situation was dire, but he either hadn't realized the implications of their words or wasn't ready to acknowledge them yet. "I was born in Cloudpeak, and I've lived here all my life. For the most part, Earth mages lived out here when I was growing up. My family helped to make sure that the volcano was kept under control. It was perfect for all of us since we were fueled by the natural magic of the peak while being able to live safely thanks to our magic," Ronan began. 

Lana looked over to Jay and saw that she was leaning forward intently. Jay was still very clearly exhausted, but she was trying her best to hang tight to whatever scraps of consciousness she had left so that she would be able to listen to Ronan finish out the story. Lana was certainly going to have to pester Jay to rest as soon as Ronan had completed his tale. 

"I remember I went up to the volcano at one point in time because it was growing unstable. I tried to keep it under control, and then everything went black. When I next woke up, I didn't recognize any of the people in the village, and I was told that more than a hundred years had passed. Mayor Cryai was the one who found me, and he said that I had been in the volcano frozen as a statue, but I was able to free myself as soon as I was disturbed," Ronan continued. 

"The volcano's magic must have combined with your natural power, and it left you frozen in time for ages," Lana whispered with a small nod. "That must be where your immortality came from. After all, not everybody is born with the natural ability to not age in conventional ways, and it sounds to me like you earned that power rather than being given it from the start."

Ronan nodded. "Yeah, I think so... I haven't really had much time to fight or anything since I was freed from the volcano. Mayor Cryai brought the town peace, but nobody really knows where he came from. He simply showed up one day, and everyone came to like him not long afterwards. He freed me from the volcano as far as I can tell, and he helped me to slip back into regular society when I was struggling beforehand," he told the group. "Nobody ever left the town though. They always seemed to be scared, but I didn't want to mention it. After all, I learned pretty early on that they weren't going to want to talk about it, so I stopped asking."

"Cryai seemed to be rather close with you as far as we could tell," Arian commented. "And given that you said you haven't aged in over a hundred years... I suppose it makes sense why he was so defensive. He realized who and what you were, and he was determined to keep you under his control."

Ronan flushed at Arian's words, and he looked down at the ground once more. He bit down on his lip, working the skin between his teeth. "I honestly don't understand what's been happening with all of this... I mean, I haven't ever had the chance to comprehend what makes me so special. I... I will admit that I've developed new magical abilities since the statue incident took place, but I was told not to mention it to anybody. Mayor Cryai said that it wouldn't be a good idea and could cause trouble for all of us. I thought that he was right, so I didn't say anything," he murmured. 

"Let me guess... You've developed all of the different variations of magic that branched off from Earth," Lana concluded, and Ronan nodded in response. Lana smiled to herself, and she began to clap her hands together in excitement. "Would you look at that? We've officially found the next member of the Skylian Mages, and that means we're free to keep going and figure out who the next one is meant to be."

"I'm glad that we came all the way out here to this desert town in the middle of nowhere," Arian admitted with a chuckle. "It would have been unfortunate if we had to double back here later and deal with Cryai then. I mean, maybe we would have been better prepared when given more time, but I think that it's all okay. All that matters is that Ronan is on our side now, and we're able to plan our next step to gather the remnants of the Skylian Mages."

Ronan rubbed at the back of his neck with a nervous smile on his face. "I must confess though... I really don't know all that much about the Skylian Mages you keep talking about. I've never left Cloudpeak, so I'm not exactly up to date on what's happening in the rest of the world. Even before the volcano incident took place, I didn't really see a reason to leave. I was happy here, and there wasn't anything that would have driven me out. You'll have to explain all of that to me, but... I get the feeling that we're going to have time. We need to recover after that fight before we set out again, wouldn't you agree?" he prompted. 

"Yeah," Lana agreed with a nod. She turned her attention over to Jay next, a frown on her face. "Now, that's enough out of you. Sleep. We won't be able to keep looking around if you're as exhausted as you are now." 

Jay's gaze was stubborn, and she looked as if she wanted to protest to Lana's command, but in the end, she decided not to. "Alright," she murmured, her eyes slowly slipping shut. She leaned sideways on the couch, placing her cheek on the armrest. She was asleep less than a minute later, and Lana couldn't help but smile with bittersweet fondness at how easily Jay was able to slip into the realm of slumber. 

"Alright, so let's talk about the Skylian Mages," Arian suggested with a grin. "We're trying to find the Skylian Mages. They're members of a group of Hanilia. Lyloc wants us to do it. The Skylian Mages are all immortals, so that's why we found you to be so odd when we first got here. There are five of them as far as we're aware, one for each category of magic. Lana here has Air magic and all of its little categories, and you have Earth magic, so that makes for two out of five."

Lana had to resist the urge to look at Arian with suspicion out of the corner of her eye. She didn't fully give him her attention, not wanting to upset Ronan given how confused and lost he was already. "We're still looking for a few more members of the team, and we're going to need your help. We don't have any useful leads at the moment, but that's okay. We're happy to have you with us, and we're sure that you'll more than fit in around here."

"It will be a unique experience to leave Cloudpeak after I've been locked up for all this time," Ronan admitted with an awkward smile. "I'm not used to exploring the outside world, but I'm hoping to enjoy it soon. I'll do what I can to help you find the rest of the Skylian Mages. I promise."

"Thank you for your help, Ronan. We really do appreciate having you on our side," Lana smiled gently. Her grin faded away soon afterwards, and concern rose in her eyes. "Now, I have to ask... Are you alright with everything that's been happening?"

Ronan seemed caught by surprise at first, unable to form proper words upon hearing her question. Lana took this as her cue to continue. "You know... You really trusted Cryai, and he turned out to only be using you in the name of the person that he's working for. I imagine that it must come as a surprise to you, and we understand if you're upset about it all. You had no way of knowing that this was his true goal by associating with you," she went on. 

Ronan hesitated at first, struggling to find the phrases to reply, before letting out a sigh. "I... I honestly don't know how I feel," he admitted softly. "I haven't seen my parents since before I turned into a statue, and that was well over two hundred years ago. Mayor Cryai was the only person who took me in after all of that, and he did what he could to make sure that I felt safe and at home, and to hear that he was doing that all to serve ulterior motives... It hurts."

Arian looked over to Ronan with sympathy bubbling up in his eyes. "But... You don't have to worry about something like that happening anymore," he assured Ronan gently. "After all, you have us in your life now, and we would never even dream of doing something so heartless. If you need anything from us, all you have to do is say so. We're part of a team, and that's what friends do for each other."

Ronan stared at Arian with pure surprise on his face until he let out a small sniffle and rubbed at his nose with the back of his hand. "I... I really don't know what to say..." he whispered. "Thank you for everything. I didn't realize how much I needed this until just now, but... Thanks. I don't know if I'll be able to bounce back from this easily, but I'm going to do my best to help out you and the rest of our team. I promise."

Lana had to admit that the determination that glimmered in Ronan's eyes was rather sweet, and his optimism was rather infectious. She found her smile returning a moment later. "I'm glad to hear that you're so ambitious about all of this, Ronan... But truly, if you need anything, all you have to do is say so. We're happy to help, and I'm sure that Jay feels the same," she assured him. 

Ronan nodded at her words, and he glanced over to Jay with a light frown. Arian and Lana followed suit a moment later, and Lana had to resist the urge to let out a sigh. Magical withdrawal was far from being an easy thing to cope with, and yet, she found herself feeling unsettled and nervous about it all. Jay was clearly incredibly powerful given how weak she had become due to the loss of her magic, and it left Lana feeling fidgety in a way that she didn't expect. There was clearly something going on, and as desperate as she was to find out the truth, Lana dared not to speak out about it. She didn't have any evidence to her suspicions, and she couldn't afford to create a rift between herself and the rest of the team simply because she was unsettled by this. 

"How about we eat something?" Ronan suddenly suggested, snapping Lana out of her thoughts in the blink of an eye. "I know that I'm tired after everything that happened this morning, and I'm sure that you could both use some food too. We can set some aside for Jay so that she can eat when she wakes up. How does that sound?" 

Lana didn't realize just how long it had been since she ate something until after Ronan offered the idea of food, and her body seemed to groan in its silent agreement. A grin graced her features, and she nodded in his direction. "That sounds lovely," she told him. Arian nodded his furious agreement a moment later, and Ronan got to his feet before dashing out to the kitchen a moment later, leaving only Lana and Arian in the room. 

Lana watched him go before her smile slipped away. She wasn't sure how she felt about all that had taken place, but something about it felt odd. Jay had explained what she learned from Cryai while she was held hostage, but she hadn't even come close to saying why Cryai had wanted her in the first place. It was strange in Lana's eyes, and she knew that she was going to have to press harder than she would have liked if she wanted to find the answer. 

Still, she figured that would be able to wait. Lana was sure that she would hear the truth at some point or another, and she would learn all of the ugly truths that had been stashed inside when the time was right. Until then, there were more important matters to focus on. There were still Skylian Mages that had not yet been uncovered, and Lana knew that they couldn't linger in Cloudpeak for too much longer. Their mission depended on it, and for all they knew, the fate of Skylia did as well. It was a lot of pressure, but who was she to complain? This was her job, after all, and it had been for a long time. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy updates
> 
> -Digital


	16. Chapter Fifteen: Whispers of Flame

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lana tells the rest of the team about rumors regarding potential Skylian Mages.

The process of leaving behind Cloudpeak was far slower than Jay would have wanted, if she was being perfectly honest. The rest of the day was a blur, and once she fell asleep, she didn't wake up again until well after the sun had set. Only Lana had been awake at that point in time, and she insisted that Jay eat some of the leftovers that Ronan had set aside. Jay had been happy to oblige, but she could tell that there was something on Lana's mind that she wasn't yet aware of. 

Every part of Lana seemed to be guarded and suspicious. Given how long she had lived, Lana was undoubtedly fully aware of how dangerous it could have been to trust others. Jay thought that she had already done enough to merit that respect, but it appeared that she was wrong. As she dug into the food that had been left behind by the rest of the group, Jay looked out of the corner of her eye to try and see what she could figure out about Lana. However, no matter how hard she tried, she was unable to fully pick apart what was going on inside the other girl's head. 

After eating, Jay crashed once again, and she had to confess that she didn't realize how exhausted she was until after she had hit the cushions of the couch once again. She knew that magical withdrawal was exhausting to put up with, but this was on a new level unlike anything she had ever seen or experienced. She had slept like a rock for almost eight hours after the rescue mission, and after finishing up her dinner, she wound up falling asleep for another twelve. It was bordering on ten in the morning when she next awoke the following day. 

Jay slowly pushed herself into a position that somewhat resembled verticality, and she let out a yawn before raising one hand to cover her mouth. She rubbed at her eyes to try and remove some of the lingering exhaustion, finding that she was in far better condition than she had been before. She had really needed the sleep, it seemed. After all that she had dealt with, Jay was glad to have gotten the chance to rest so much. She was almost dreading the time when she would have to get out and face the rest of the world once again because of how nice it had been to take life at her own pace for a few hours. 

Ronan was humming to himself when Jay first woke up, and he was packing a bag of essentials for their travels. He had an oddly jubilant expression on his face despite all that he had gone through in the past few days, and Jay couldn't help but wonder just how innocent Ronan was due to his isolation from the world. As far as she was aware, he had never seen a reason to leave Cloudpeak, so he grew up and lived for his entire life within the boundaries of the desert town. Jay, who had been born to travel, didn't understand how such a lifestyle could have been appealing, but she wasn't there to judge Ronan, so she simply watched him from afar with silent fascination. 

Arian and Lana were already awake as well, though they weren't bustling around the building the way that Ronan was. Instead, Lana was sitting on the couch next to Arian, and the two were examining a holographic map of Skylia that Lana was projecting into the air. Lana dragged her fingers purposefully across the surface of the globe of light, clearly searching for something but not saying what it was. 

Jay didn't even need her to explain. She already had the sneaking suspicion that she could figure it out. They were still looking for the Skylian Mages just like they always had been. Finding Ronan was a step in the right direction, but there were still others who yet eluded their grasp. Lana was undoubtedly trying to track down any clues that would be able to tell them where to go next. 

"Morning, sleepyhead. Feel any better?"

Lana didn't even look up when she addressed Jay, and the latter almost jumped out of her skin out of shock at being spoken to. When she managed to regain her composure, she nodded. "Yeah," she answered, to herself at first and then to the rest of the room. "Yeah. I think I just needed to sleep it off. I feel fine now."

Just to prove it to herself that everything was alright, Jay held one hand up, her palm facing the ceiling. A sphere of purple energy formed soon afterwards, and her expression softened at the newfound light. She allowed the illumination to disperse a moment later before she glanced around the rest of the room. Sunlight was starting to stream in through the windows, and Jay found that she much preferred it to the shadows that she had woken up to when she ate the night before. 

"We still can't find anything," Arian suddenly muttered, and Jay glanced back up to the holographic map of Skylia. Lana swiped another lazy finger across the surface of the globe, either not hearing Arian's words in her concentration or simply choosing to ignore him. 

"We got lucky with Ronan," Jay murmured, knowing just what they were all thinking without having to ask. "Lana wanted to look around the desert, and that's just where he happened to be. I don't think that we can rely on that luck again. It's like we're trying to find a few needles in a haystack. We pricked our finger on accident this time, but that doesn't mean that we can expect for that to happen again."

"I'm trying to find out more information about potential immortals throughout the different planets. I already looked at Daragon, but I didn't find anything notable, so now I'm looking at Skylia," Lana explained. "There are a few rumors that I've heard, but they're old, and I don't think we're going to be able to use them to find our targets."

"Go on and tell us then," Jay prompted. She slowly rose to her feet, giving her body an experimental stretch as she reached her arms towards the ceiling. She enjoyed the familiar pull of her muscles, and she took quiet joy in the fact that she was able to move on her own at all. After the day before, Jay found that she had missed it even for just the few fleeting hours that she had to rely on others. Her fierce independence had been stamped out, and she had hated it while it was happening.

Lana nodded in response to Jay's words. "First off, the number one rumor has to do with an incredibly powerful prison that was created centuries ago," she began. "The Fearbringers were actually looking after it, if you can believe that. Their leader at the time, a Fire mage, breathed life into a figure made of incredibly powerful steel. The newborn mage was a guard at the prison for a long time, but I'm afraid that nobody knows where they are now. For all we know, it could be false."

"If the Fearbringers were responsible for it, then... That must have happened ages ago. I somehow doubt that Mersall would have been the type to do something like that lovingly, and he was in power up until recently. I'm willing to bet that this was centuries ago," Arian remarked. 

"I think it's safe to assume that as well. The prison was created centuries ago, though that doesn't necessarily mean that the person in question was formed at this same point in time. However, given what we already know about the Fearbringers and their recent actions, I believe that it's safe enough to assume that this is the case," Lana agreed. 

Jay was silent as the other two discussed the Fearbringers. She was unfortunately aware of just how ruthless the group had been up until recently. After the war between the Fearbringers and Daragon's people ended, the Fearbringers disappeared into obscurity. Only a select few of them had been given the chance to escape the aftermath of the conflict, specifically those working under the command of Zelda, a Chaos mage who was once known as Mersall's most powerful soldier. 

Jay absolutely _hated_ Zelda. 

Still, she didn't mention this openly, instead choosing to stare at the ground, finding solace in the endless intricacies of the carpet of Ronan's home. Thinking about the Fearbringers' recent actions wasn't going to help anyone. It was only going to upset her at a time when she really couldn't afford to wind up more angry than she already was at the world. Jay was a rational person by nature, but she knew tragically well how weak she could be to the whims of pettiness, and talking about the Fearbringers was a sure way to cause her to slide back into her old bad habits. 

"The point of what I'm trying to say is that a lot has happened involving the Fearbringers lately, so chances are that this immortal was around centuries ago. That doesn't help our search in the slightest, so we should move on and think about the next rumor until we can find solid evidence of what happened to that incredibly powerful prison guard," Lana said. Even though she was looking at the ground, Jay could feel Lana's eyes on her, and she was positive that the other girl had only said so much because she was trying to calm Jay's perceived fury. 

Jay nodded in response to Lana's words, not acknowledging the behavior of the other girl, before tearing her gaze away from the floor. "You said that there were multiple rumors, so what are the other ones like?" she questioned. 

"Next up, we need to talk about the modern Fearbringers, I'm afraid," Lana frowned. "Mersall might not have been responsible for breathing life into the guard of that top security prison, but he may have been involved with something recently. Of course, I have no evidence of him being the one responsible, but... It's still something we should consider."

Jay did her best to keep from swearing under her breath at Lana's continuation. She knew that getting upset wasn't going to help anyone, but she still felt the desperate desire to lash out at something, anything, with hopes that it would calm the anger raging within. She hated thinking about the Fearbringers, and there was only so much more of them that she was going to be able to take for one day. Given how terrible the past twenty-four hours had been for her, Jay was left even more bitter and enraged towards them than usual, but she was still doing her best to suppress her bad mood to keep from upsetting anyone else. 

"The Fearbringers were trying to create a perfect soldier for a long time. I believe that this effort was eventually abandoned when Zelda was uncovered. I know for sure that Zelda was born of flesh and blood rather than being given life later on, so she couldn't possibly fit this description. Besides, I feel like we would know it if she was immortal," Lana continued. "The perfect soldier that they tried to create was far from being a real living creature, instead being an inanimate statue that was once again given life."

"But if Mersall gave this soldier life, then they would have to be a Fire mage, and we already know that the previous fighter would have to be a Fire mage because of the power they were given," Arian pointed out. "That means that only one of those two is relevant, and I don't know if we can trust the recent actions of the Fearbringers to be truthful. They spent a lot of time lying while Mersall was in power, so who's to say that he didn't lie about this as a way of stirring up attention?"

"I'm inclined to believe Arian's right here," Jay confessed. She tried to pretend that it was because he was making a valid point (which he was) rather than since it gave a voice to her lingering anger towards Mersall's era of Fearbringers. "We can't trust people who were involved with the recent era of Fearbringers. I can totally buy the prison guard that you mentioned before, but the Fearbringers were't above lying to make sure that they were in control. They were willing to do anything to scare the people of Daragon, and I think that this rumor is just too unreliable for us to look into."

Lana nodded slowly. "Alright," she murmured. "You do have a point about how we can't have multiple Fire mages, and it would make more sense if the second of the two was false... Okay. I'll put that one on the back burner unless we find that we absolutely have to look into it. Now, I have one more rumor to tell you about."

The room fell silent, and even Ronan stopped his humming as he sat down next to Jay. He was zipping up a backpack full of essentials, and a gentle smile was on his face. Jay could tell that he had been listening to the entire conversation even if he had elected not to speak, and there was a newfound determination that glittered in Ronan's hazel gaze. Everything about him appeared to be more confident than before between his excited eyes and perfectly-combed light brown hair. His clothing, previously casual and unprofessional, had been replaced with something new. 

Ronan had donned a heavy black jacket that rested over a simple gray shirt. His trousers were also gray, but they were darker than his shirt was. He wore boots that were clearly meant for walking for long periods of time, and gloves covered his hands completely. Everything about him said that he was ready for an adventure, and Jay couldn't help but wonder how long he had been hoping to leave Cloudpeak behind. Ronan had claimed that there wasn't a reason for him to go, but she was starting to think that perhaps he had been searching for a reason up until she and the rest of the Skylian Mage search party showed up. 

Full attention settled back on Lana once Ronan was settled in, and she glanced back down to the hologram of the planet in front of her. "Last up, we need to investigate a large business corporation. They're known for being involved with countless aspects of civilian life, but their most prominent venture involves the investigation of magical oddities. As far as I can tell, they have one of these 'magical oddities' working in their investigation force. That's what the rumors say, at the very least. I'm not sure of any details beyond that, but it's still worth checking out given how little we have to go off at this point," Lana declared. She allowed the hologram to disappear a moment later, and her hands fell limply onto her lap. 

"I bet that they're trying to cover up the truth if they do have somebody suspicious in their ranks," Arian pointed out. "I mean, look at what Cryai did with Ronan. If this business has access to one of the Skylian Mages, then they'd want to cover their tracks to best of their ability. It would keep anyone from getting too suspicious of their activities. The information that Lana has is pretty minimal, but chances are that she had to work hard to even find that much."

Lana nodded her confirmation. "Yeah, that's putting it simply, honestly... I don't think that we're going to be able to find anything else that large when it comes to the corporation. If we want to find the truth, we're going to have to go out of our way to find the truth on our own. It's unfortunate, but there's not much we can do to change that fact," she commented. 

"We'll do what we can to learn more about all that's happened," Jay said simply. "Right now, we have three leads to investigate, but I believe that one of them is going to be a dead end. We've already heard about two mages who would have Fire magic, but only one of them can be the Skylian Mage who possesses that element because of the way that elemental distribution works among Hanilia. Unless there are other factors at play, no two members of the same group can have the same element."

"Yeah, and given the fact that the Skylian Mages are heavily tied to Lyloc, it only makes sense that one of them is a Fire mage while the other isn't involved with this," Lana concluded. "Think about it this way. Lyloc is a methodical creature. I knew her for many years leading up to her death, and I'm positive that there wouldn't be two people of the same element as long as she had a say in what was happening. Since she was most certainly involved, it's easy to conclude that one of those two Fire mages is a false lead, and we're going to have to back away from it as soon as it's proven to be false."

"We'll just have to keep searching," Ronan shrugged. "I'm sure that we'll be able to figure everything out eventually. Just give it a bit of time, and all of the pieces will come together. Still, I guess that all we can do for now is start to look around. Is there anything else that we should be aware of involving these immortals? I feel like you've probably told us everything that we could find useful, but I suppose that it doesn't hurt to ask a second time."

Lana shook her head. "Not, not at all," she remarked. "There's nothing else that I've found that could possibly help us out... There are all sorts of mages who claim to be immortal as a way of earning a reputation, but they don't know what they're talking about most of the time. Mages live far longer than regular people do, so some people get the false idea that they can live forever."

"We'll just have to keep searching for the real immortals and cast aside the rumors. I know that the ones that you've brought up are important because of the fact that you've spent so much time looking into them. I get the feeling that you're just as methodical as Lyloc was, so I trust your judgement on the matter," Jay said. She rose to her feet and stretched her arms above her head one last time. She tilted her neck from side to side to release the last of the tension that still lingered from her lengthy sleep. 

"Where should we get started? There are obviously three leads that we have right now, so we need to pick one of them to start with," Arian suggested. "We could always go in order of the list that was created by Lana. That would mean that we would be starting with the rumors surrounding the prison guard from the times of an old generation of Fearbringers."

Lana shook her head. "I don't think that's going to be our best option, actually," she told the group. "The prison guard case was ages ago, and I don't know if we're going to be able to find anything now. Granted, all of these took place years ago, but I still think that our best bet would be to start with the most recent rumors."

"That would be the second set that you brought up then, yes?" Ronan questioned. "I think that you said they were Fearbringers who gave life to another creature... You did point out that it was recent, right?"

Lana nodded. "Yeah, that's it," she confirmed. "I don't exactly know where we're supposed to start in any of these cases though. I know where Arian and Jay started when they were trying to find me. They did research into my existence because a clue was left behind for them to find. Ronan was found by complete chance. If you ask me, the last three are going to be the problematic members of the group because of one unfortunate factor that may come into play with all that's been happening."

"What problem are you referring to?" Arian questioned, a frown appearing on his features. He seemed nervous all of a sudden, and Jay couldn't blame him. They had only gotten as far as they had thanks to luck and clues left in Lyloc's wake, but they didn't have those advantages anymore. Luck was a finite resource in Jay's eyes, and they wouldn't be able to rely on it where the last three Skylian Mages were concerned.

"I don't think that Lyloc ever met them," Lana replied after a moment of hesitation. "Lyloc and I didn't speak for a long time simply because we were busy with our own different endeavors. Still, I find it hard to believe that she wouldn't mention crossing paths with a Skylian Mage to me... Ronan, did you ever meet Lyloc?"

Ronan shook his head. "No... Mayor Cryai was very strict about who he allowed to enter Cloudpeak, and I think I would have noticed if someone that important came to visit. I didn't know much of the outside world. In fact, all of my knowledge of recent events is incredibly vague. You've spoken a few times of the war between Daragon and the Fearbringers. I knew that it was happening, but I didn't know any of the details behind it because Mayor Cryai was so careful about the information that he allowed to slip in through the gates of Cloudpeak," he replied. 

Lana sighed. "And that's our problem. Ronan never met Lyloc. I'm sure that she would have been able to find a way into Cloudpeak if she truly wanted to speak with him. She was a stubborn woman, and if she wanted anything to happen, she would find a way to accomplish it at any means necessary. If she wanted to communicate with Ronan, it most certainly would have happened before her death," she continued. 

"Great... Now we don't even have that to go off," Arian muttered. "Lyloc left behind a clue for us to find Lana through a photo of her with the rest of the original Hanilia. The name was written on the back, and after we did a bit of digging, we were able to figure out everything that was happening. I don't think the same is going to apply here... In fact, I know for sure that it isn't going to apply given all that's happened involving Ronan not knowing Lyloc before she passed away."

"It means that we're just going to have to keep on with our search as we would otherwise," Jay shrugged. She let out a sigh and started walking towards the door. "How about we go on and see what the rest of the world has in store for us then? It's not like we're going to find the information that we need while we're still here, and I believe that we're ready to head out now."

Ronan nodded his agreement and followed Jay to the door. Lana and Arian trailed after them, and they stepped out into the desert sands of Cloudpeak. Ronan shut the door to the house behind them before locking it, and a light sigh left his lips before he started to walk away. The other three followed in his footsteps, but Jay gave one final glance to the house before she started moving. Cloudpeak had been an absolute nightmare, and she was glad to finally be leaving it behind. She still didn't fully understand what was happening, but she was determined to find the answers soon. 

Cryai was the real mystery. She didn't know who could have given him the power of life. It was clear that he was involved with the Ice mage who had attacked Jay and Arian in Nadia, but the true identity of such a fighter was still unknown. Jay was sure that the truth would come to light soon enough, and she was positive that it was the reason that Lyloc had called for the Skylian Mages to assemble after so many years apart. Not all of them were aware of their destinies as Hanilia fighters, and it was a bold move on Lyloc's part to suddenly expect so much of people that she had never met. She would have only made such a desperate gambit if she was trying to stop something terrible from happening. It wasn't out of the question given how sly Lyloc was capable of being. Jay simply had to have faith that everything would work. 

As she walked through the sand with the rest of the group, Jay thought about all that had happened recently. She hated the fact that this was all happening so suddenly. Daragon had just escaped the war with the Fearbringers, and that should have meant that peace was going to fall over the rest of the galaxy. Instead, Skylia was being dragged into another conflict, and Jay had no clue what they were supposed to do about it. The Ice mage's true intentions were still out of her reach, and nobody else on Skylia was aware of what was happening. It was frustrating, but there wasn't much she could do about it aside from just press on. 

Jay took in a deep breath to ground herself. Soon enough, everything would come together. She simply had to have faith that the world would begin to come into focus with a bit more time. There wasn't anything else she could do. Jay didn't consider herself an optimistic person, instead airing on the side of pragmatism, but she knew that she had to have hope about the situation. She knew that she was going to crumble if she allowed that hope to evade her for too long, so she held to it with everything she was. 

~~~~~

Everybody knew who Jubilee was. 

She was from a rather niche area of Skylia, but all those who had crossed her path were fully aware of who she was. Jubilee didn't run the tavern that many had come to frequent, but she was easily the most popular waitress there. She knew all of the regulars by heart, and all of them requested for her service when they dropped by. It was a quaint little corner of the world, and she wouldn't have had it any other way. 

Jubilee reached out for one of the bottles on the counter before flicking off the cap effortlessly. She poured a drink into a small glass before placing the cap on top of the bottle once again. She drank the water from the glass gracefully, easily earning herself the eyes of many others in the tavern. That was one of Jubilee's primary draws: everything that she did was captivating somehow. Even people that she had never met would find themselves staring at her elegance. 

Jubilee leaned against the counter as she set the glass down once again. It was a slow day, though she supposed that this was alright after the chaos of the previous night. The seconds were crawling on at agonizing pace, each one seeming longer than the last. She preferred it to the potential of a fight, that was for sure. The night before, Jubilee had been forced to tear two patrons apart to ensure that they didn't knock each other unconscious in their drunken anger. As soon as she stepped in, all thoughts of violence disappeared from the minds of the parties involved. Jubilee commanded the respect of all those who she met, almost as if she was a general and all the world's people were her soldiers. 

She decided to return to the sink, and she turned on the faucet before dunking her hands under the water to clean off something sticky that was clinging fiercely to her skin. She shook her hands through the air after turning the water off, and she reached for the nearby towel. Only a few people were around, but all of them were calm and silent. Nighttime was when the tavern truly got chaotic, and Jubilee was alright with the peace of the area regardless of how boring it was. She most certainly preferred it to the times when she was forced to shout in order to maintain the calmness of the building. 

Jubilee was placing the towel back in its regular spot when the door to the building opened. She glanced up, a frown on her face as she tried to pinpoint the newcomer. He hadn't ever come to the tavern before as far as she was aware. Jubilee remembered the faces of all the people who she met in the tavern, but she hadn't ever crossed paths with him before. 

His skin was tanned, and his eyes were dark. Such a darkness transcended the mere color of his irises though, making it seem as everything about him was stormy and tempestuous. His mood was impossible to identify exactly, but she was positive that he was in a bad mood. 

The man walked over to the bar before settling down atop a stool a few feet away from Jubilee. She raised one eyebrow in his direction, eyeing the strange broken goggles on top of his head. "Is there anything I can get you?" she questioned, trying to seem casual despite the mounting suspicions in her chest. 

The man looked up to her, watching her with a gaze that seemed haunted and hardened at the same time. As he examined her, his hand clenched into a fist. He continued to watch Jubilee for long enough that she began to glare at him. Silence filled the air until he broke it by speaking. "As a matter of fact, yes."

Jubilee had no idea what she was in for, but she had the sneaking suspicion that it was far from being positive. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updating this fast oop
> 
> -Digital


	17. Chapter Sixteen: Intel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jubilee and Colt discuss their unique motivations for meeting as the Clan Leaders return to Hyperion.

Jubilee continued to watch the man who had just walked into the tavern, and she leaned forward as soon as she realized that she wasn't going to be free of his presence anytime soon. She allowed her forearm to fall into a horizontal position while her other elbow sat in her hand, giving her the chance to cradle her chin between her fingers. She tilted her head to the side and forced herself to say something, desperate to push at least a bit of information from the strange man. "Tell me... What is your name?" she questioned, trying to sound as casual as possible while still showing the man that she was the one in charge. It was a quiet method of probing that Jubilee had become good at over the years. 

The man looked up at Jubilee before his eyes narrowed. "Colt," he answered simply. "But I get the feeling that you already know that information. I know that you're good at uncovering information regardless of if you're supposed to know it or not. That's exactly why I'm here to speak with you."

Jubilee's eyes went wide as an expression of vague surprise appeared on her face. She stared at Colt for a long moment before she shook her head. "I see," she commented, unsure of how she was meant to respond to his comments on the matter. She forced herself into a fully upright position once again, and she tilted her head to both sides to stretch it out. "Why are you here, Colt?" The question made it clear that she had no intentions of proving Colt right or wrong about her knowing his name prior to their first encounter. Jubilee knew how to keep certain information hidden if she believed that it would play to her advantage, and this was no exception to such a rule. 

Colt glanced to Jubilee in disbelief before shaking his head. "You already know why I'm here. You know things, and I want to know them as well," he explained. "You've got access to a lot of information. When people pass through here, you hear what they say, and I need to hear about the things that others say when they come by this bar."

Jubilee forced herself away from where Colt was sitting, desperate to busy herself with anything else so that she didn't have to pay attention to his probing words. "You sure are bold in believing that I'm going to tell you anything that I know... That is, assuming that I have any information that you want. I've worked here for a long time, but there are some bits of knowledge that you simply don't come across in this little corner of the world," she pointed out, picking up a plate sitting on the back counter before starting to scrub it down. 

"I don't think that's going to stop you," Colt told Jubilee honestly with a light shrug. "The rumors that I've heard about you make it clear that you're going to find something out if it interests you regardless of if you're supposed to hear about it. That's how you function. Unless you have a way of proving that wrong..."

Jubilee shook her head. "You sure are a stubborn one," she muttered with a roll of her eyes. She didn't know who Colt was, but she already found him to be rather frustrating. Who did he think he was, simply marching into the tavern that she called home territory and asking that she talk about subjects that he wasn't entitled to know anything about? He had an ego, and she had to admit that she was impressed with his hubris. She would never have the ridiculously bold confidence to do something like that, if she was being honest with herself. 

However, Jubilee was lying to herself slightly when she said that she didn't know who Colt was. She was vaguely aware of who he was, but the details were distant and foggy. She never bothered to look into Colt more than she had to. Jubilee knew that he was part of a large group that was suspected to be involved with shady activity, but it wasn't as if she could force him to talk about that so suddenly. Colt might have been confident enough to think that Jubilee would be forthcoming with her information, but she knew better than to rub him the wrong way so soon after they first met one another. 

"I think that you're stronger than you let on," Colt began, earning him a confused frown from Jubilee a moment later. He continued when he noticed that his words had caused her to pause in her scrubbing of the plate she had picked up. "You pretend to be a regular waitress around here, but I somehow doubt that it's the case. Everyone knows you, and you've been here for ages, but nobody has ever bothered to ask you about where you come from."

"You think that I'm up to something nefarious?" Jubilee questioned, turning her head over her shoulder to steal a glance at Colt. "You sure are confident, strutting in here like you own the place and then demanding that I share all of the information that I have access to."

Colt raised an eyebrow. "Don't put words in my mouth. I know what I want to know from you, and I'm not going to be leaving this place behind until you tell me what's going on with your true identity. I know that you aren't who you say you are, and I want to know the truth," he told her. 

"Is this a search for that company you work for? Or is this simply a personal endeavor? Either way, I'm not exactly inclined to trust you so soon, especially not if you're coming in here and demanding that I tell you everything that I know when we don't even know each other. Can you blame me for being a bit pessimistic about this?" Jubilee asked. Regardless of if Colt said that he understood or not, Jubilee was sure that she wasn't going to reveal anything more than she had to. 

Colt was silent at her words before he shook his head. "Personal," he muttered. "I think that there's something more to you, and I think that we can be of assistance to one another. This involves the history that you never discuss with anyone, but I might be able to factor into it somehow."

Jubilee had to admit that she was surprised at how honest he was being about it all. She had been sure that he was going to lie his way through it with hopes to get the best results. Jubilee had picked up on ways to tell if people were being honest or not in her many years of working as a waitress in the tavern, and she was positive that he was telling the truth. It wasn't worth much, but she still had to admit that she found it fascinating. 

"Tell me then," Jubilee said simply, sliding the plate out of her grasp as she turned to face him. "You claim that we can help one another, so go on and tell me what about me is so special that you would come out of your way to investigate me. It's not as if I've done anything illegal. I simply work in a bar, handing out drinks to the patrons who pass through. I somehow doubt that you're coming to ask me about my work involving that though."

Colt shook his head. "No... I'm here to talk to you about something more. I have reason to believe that you used to be involved with combat, and I wish to know what elemental abilities you possess," he told her. "We can help each other if you are who I suspect. Even if you don't trust me, then that's alright. I'm hoping to prove myself to you one of these days regardless of how long it takes me to accomplish."

Jubilee hesitated at his inquiry before forcing herself to speak once again. "I've got Fire magic," she replied simply. "Your magic is unknown though. You don't ever use it regardless of who you're with. You work with a big bad agency that should give you free reign of your powers for your various missions, and yet, you simply decide to not unveil such information no matter what you do. It's strange."

"I have my reasons for that, and it's the same reason that I'm sure we would be able to help each other out. The rest of the world is harsh and unpredictable, but I'm positive that you're something a bit different from what I'm used to," Colt said. "How about this? I can tell you everything that I know, and you can return the favor."

Jubilee shook her head. "You really think that it's going to be that easy? I can tell that something is going on here, and even if you promise to be honest, it's going to take more than that to convince me. Your information isn't valuable to me, if I'm being truthful here. No matter what you have to say, you're not going to drag the truth out of me. How about we finish our conversation here and save ourselves a bit of time?" she questioned. 

Colt sighed before rising to his feet and backing away from the countertop of the bar. "If you truly wish to wait until a later point to speak once again, then that's fine with me. I'm sure that we're going to find a way back to one another sooner or later," he commented, starting to walk towards the door. He vanished through the entrance soon afterwards, leaving Jubilee alone in the area. 

Jubilee stared at the place where Colt had disappeared from, and she nodded to herself. He was right about them finding a way back to one another. It was only a matter of time before they wound right back where they started at one another's sides. Jubilee had never met Colt before, and yet, part of her felt as if she had known him for ages, but she assumed that it simply came with the territory that they were exploring. 

Jubilee poured herself another glass of water before leaning up against the bar. The day was still slow, but thinking about the peculiar figure known as Colt gave her a little something to do. She took a swig from the glass before setting it down on the counter. "Oh, I'm sure that we will," she murmured. She knew that nobody was around to hear her speak, but she didn't particularly care. Instead, she simply got back to her regular business, wondering when she was going to learn the truth being the strange man she had come to know as Colt that slow day in the tavern. 

~~~~~

A few days had passed since Jayler and the rest of the Clan Leaders were last able to bridge the gap between Earth and Hyperion to help with the construction of the castle as a Hanilia base. School had dragged them under its tyrannical fingers once again, and that most certainly made reaching out to Hyperion a bit more frustrating, but that didn't stop Jayler from trying. He continued to plan even when he wasn't on Skylia, wondering when they were going to be ready to move to the next phase of their plan. 

Jayler was sure that it was going to be soon, and he couldn't wait if he was being perfectly honest with himself. The Skylia project was reaching the starting point of its second stage, and Jayler knew that it got him closer to being able to see his twin once again. The Silver Knight was still roaming the Galaxy of Hyperion, and he was determined to find her. Thinking about her brought him a twisted sense of melancholy reminiscence, but he knew that it wasn't always going to be that way. One day, he would have the answers that he sought, and they would be back together again. 

Jayler sat in class while tapping at the table in front of him with the top of his pencil. The day had been excruciatingly slow, and he wanted nothing more than to slip out and go to Hyperion to keep working on the castle. They had gotten far beyond the halfway point in cleaning the area up, and Jayler loved it when he had the chance to wander around and find all of the details of the palace. It was a beautiful place, and he still couldn't believe that he was going to be able to spend a ton of time there as soon as they were finished with sorting out the remaining details regarding their occupancy there. 

He and the rest of the Clan Leaders were planning on going to Hyperion after school ended. They didn't have classes the following day due to a session meant to train teachers during school hours, and Jayler couldn't wait for it. Until then though, he couldn't help but wonder how slow time could crawl by as he sat in his final class of the day. His foot began to bounce up and down out of a desperation to be free. Why couldn't the world have mercy on him?

Jayler was so caught up in his own misery that he didn't realize class was over until after the bell sounded, and he practically jumped three feet in the air at the piercing noise that rang in his ears. He forced himself to throw his things together as quickly as he could manage before darting towards the door. 

Xia was waiting for him outside the room. She was leaning up against the lockers to the right of the door, typing on her phone with a miffed expression. Jayler knew that Xia's emotional switches could be radical and more, but something about her felt different this time, as if she was barely able to keep her anger under control. 

"What are you--" Jayler began, but he was cut off when Xia noticed him and sent one hand shooting out to grab firmly onto his wrist. She was dragging him through the crowd of students a moment later, and Jayler had to fight to maintain his balance as she wove in and out of countless clusters of their peers. 

By some stroke of a miracle, Jayler managed to get his feet beneath himself again, and he allowed Xia to lead him as far away from the school as she could. They arrived on the frozen football field soon afterwards, and Jayler could see just how pinched Xia's features truly were, as if she was barely managing to hide how enraged she was at some outside figure. It looked as if she was struggling with a headache as well, and Jayler couldn't help but wonder what in the world could have put her in such a sour mood. He already had an awful feeling about why she was so upset. 

"What's going on with you?" Jayler questioned as the two kept walking. He felt as if his arm was being torn out of his shoulder socket every once in a while when he wasn't able to keep up with Xia's speed, and he wondered how someone a good few inches shorter than he was could move so quickly and still put him under pressure. 

Xia was silent until after she and Jayler had cleared the first cluster of students leaving the school. She crossed her arms and let out a sigh once she had released Jayler from her grasp. "I'm still getting text messages from a certain annoying person, and I think that I'm going to punch her in her stupid face if I ever see her again," Xia replied, and Jayler couldn't help but think that it was a miracle that Xia wasn't swearing violently over the situation. He was fully aware of how much she disliked Allison these days, and he couldn't blame her in the slightest given that he didn't like them much himself. 

"When is she going to realize that you just don't want to spend time with her anymore?" Jayler questioned with a roll of his eyes. "I don't understand how she isn't getting the picture yet. You've made it perfectly clear for quite some time now that you've changed your outlook on life, and yet, she just keeps on wanting to drag you back into her group of punks."

"She's tired of not being able to control me. I think that she enjoyed being able to use my attitude to her advantage somehow, but since I'm making it clear that she won't be able to get away with that anymore, she's getting mad about it," Xia replied. "But that doesn't matter anymore. I just want to forget about everything that I ever associated with her. We have to go to Hyperion now anyways."

Jayler nodded his agreement as Xia put her phone away. He could tell that there was still some unreleased animosity towards Allison for the way that she was acting, but he chose not to comment on it as a way of keeping Xia from growing more upset than she already was. Jayler knew not to poke that beast, and he respected Xia to not do the same in return when he was in a bad mood in the future. 

As other students began to stream their way out of the building, Jayler and Xia waited patiently until they were close to being alone. It was best for them to ensure that nobody would walk in on their quest to Hyperion when they went out to the football field. Plus, it was a way to keep Xia from getting too cold when they went outside. The chill didn't bother Jayler because of his Fire magic, but Xia unfortunately lacked those advantages, and he thought it would be for the best to keep her from getting sick by staying inside for as long as possible. 

Once all of the chaos had cleared, Jayler and Xia walked out to the football field. Jayler's breath fogged in a cloud in front of his face as he caught sight of the other four members of the team. Lex was waving one hand above her head dramatically in an attempt to catch Jayler's attention. Luckily, it worked, and both Jayler and Xia sped up so that they could meet with the other four Clan Leaders. 

"We're going to be heading out now," Gemini told them, her voice solemn and leaving no room for objections. She looked over to the bleachers, and a figure came slinking out of the shadows. Tuila's silvery hair was familiar enough to Jayler that it earned her an immediate smile from him. 

"I wonder what we're going to do now," Luke commented, rocking back and forth on his toes and heels. "We've made a lot of progress on the cleaning process of the building, so that should mean that we're closer to being able to reach out and find the rest of the Hanilia who will be working with us in the future."

"I've actually got some new information that you six are going to want to hear about. Liathine will tell you all about it once we arrive," Tuila explained. She gestured for the Clan Leaders to come in close, and she snapped her fingers. Light burst around them, and Jayler closed his eyes to keep from seeing spots. The world around him began to spin, and he knew that the football field was falling away. 

From behind a corner, Allison watched everything with a frown on her face. Her fingers clenched tightly into a fist, and she glared at the place where the Clan Leaders had been. She took a step back a moment later, clearly thinking about what she was going to be doing next time she saw something like this happen. 

~~~~~

When the castle on Skylia came into view, Jayler smiled. He glanced up to Tuila and saw that she was uncharacteristically serious. He couldn't help but wonder if perhaps the news Liathine was going to be giving them was of the negative variety. He didn't want to think that something bad could have happened, but given how solemn Tuila was being, it was most certainly a possibility. 

Tuila gestured for the Clan Leaders to follow her into the building, and they did so without a moment of hesitation. The lobby area of the castle was mostly empty, but Liathine was standing inside. She had a hologram pulled up, and she was sliding her fingers lazily across the surface. Jayler caught sight of both Cordell and Diamond's names on the list of words the hologram was displaying, and he assumed that they were trying to finish cleaning up the castle. 

"Have a seat," Tuila instructed once the Clan Leaders were fully inside. This was Liathine's cue to disperse the hologram, and she walked over to where the Clan Leaders were located. Liathine sat down on the floor alongside the six teenagers as Tuila continued to speak. "I'm going to go and make sure that everything is going well on Daragon with the war restoration. Tell me if there's something that I need to know about."

Tuila took a few steps away from the group before snapping her fingers and disappearing into a shower of silvery light. Jayler watched the spot where she was standing a moment beforehand. However, his attention was soon attracted by Liathine clearing her throat, and he knew that listening to her was undoubtedly the best course of action. 

"I've figured out that there has been recent Hanilia activity here on Skylia," Liathine began. "The group of defenders for Skylia is called the Skylian Mages, but I'm sure that you already knew that. The Skylian Mages haven't been seen in a long time. They're one of the hardest Hanilia groups to get into contact with because they haven't been a cohesive team before. The original Skylian Mage was Lyloc, and she selects the next generation herself. She picked out the Skylian Mages through a list of immortals, but she never actually got into contact with them. For all we know, some of them aren't even aware of who they are as Skylian Mages. That comes with the territory that we're going through of assembling the Hanilia factions, but... It's still something that we didn't expect to see happen."

"You mean that the Skylian Mages are actually doing things even without us going out of our way to search for them?" Ocean questioned, her eyes wide with surprise. "If so, that will certainly make our eventual goal of assembling them a lot easier since they'll already be together."

"It's concerning that this is happening in the first place," Liathine continued. "If they're assembling, that means that there's a reason for them to go out of their way to connect for the first time in history. The Skylian Mages have never been together since they're the same group that has been around for generations. Other sets of Hanilia get reincarnated, but they've been the same countless years, and if they never saw a reason to reunite before now... That means that there's something going on here that we aren't seeing. It's concerning that they would suddenly have a reason to work together after settling for being alone for so long. You see where I'm coming from here, right?"

Jayler nodded slowly. "Yeah... I definitely think that something here is weird... I just don't know what reason they could have for coming together. I mean, there's peace all over Hyperion since the war between Daragon and the Fearbringers is over. What reason would anyone have to go out of their way to create a force of fighters?" he questioned. "We're bringing the Hanilia together for peace reasons, but it didn't take us centuries to get that idea."

"We're going to have to be on the lookout for something that could possibly make them want to do this," Liathine said. "I'm going to do what research I can to make sure that nothing bad happens, but... There are no guarantees that I'll be able to keep everything under control. Until I find something that we can use, you six are going to keep working on cleaning up the castle while a majority of the Draconic Superiors restore peace to Daragon. We'll figure out a next step after all of that has been taken care of. If we need to act before then, we'll know that something is going seriously wrong. I'll do my best to figure everything out before it hits that point though."

"Thanks for telling us about this, Liathine," Lex smiled. "I'm hoping that nothing goes wrong enough to merit our reacting in such an extreme way, but I guess that there's really not a way for us to tell what will happen until it actually does. For now, let's focus on cleaning up the castle. Once this place is fully presentable, we'll be able to help you with research involving why the Skylian Mages would want to get together."

"When you phrase it like that, you make it sound like they're a band coming together for a reunion concert rather than a bunch overpowered immortals going on a quest to defeat some unspecified evil," Gemini commented with a shake of her head. "Anyways, I agree with Lex. Let's get to it now."

"I'll be here if you need to talk to me about anything," Liathine told them. She created her hologram from before once again, and she began to drag her fingers along the surface just as she had before. Her focus zoned in completely on the work that she was doing, and Jayler knew that the chances of them squeezing further information out of her were rather slim. When Liathine focused on something, nothing could disturb her.

Jayler took that as his cue to get back to work, and he walked into the deepest corner of the castle that he felt he could navigate without getting lost. He began to hum to himself as he glanced around the small room, and he let out a gasp as he realized just what room he had stumbled upon. 

Lyloc's room was out of the way of the majority of the castle. Since it was hidden in a small corner far from where anyone would need to come on their daily business, the Clan Leaders hadn't felt the need to stop by. Besides, it was a rather important room, so they chose to leave it be until they had taken care of other areas. It seemed that their progress had pushed far enough outward from the entrance that they were able to head to Lyloc's office on the way to their other daily tasks of cleaning the palace up. 

Jayler was careful as he explored Lyloc's room, not wanting to disturb anything that had been there for quite some time. The area had been left essentially untouched ever since the Skylox Heroes were first defeated ages prior, and Jayler could tell. He held up one finger in front of his nose in a vain attempt to keep from sneezing and messing with something he wasn't supposed to touch. 

One thing did catch Jayler's attention, and he frowned to himself. There was an odd area of the room that appeared to have been disturbed since the attack. There was a clear outline of a hand on a drawer in a specific table, and Jayler couldn't help but wonder who could have wanted to come inside and mess with such. 

Against his better judgement, Jayler reached out and opened the drawer, swiping at the air to keep from breathing in any of the dust that lived in the atmosphere just as much as air did. He let out a sigh once he was sure that he was safe from disturbing anything, and he closed his eyes before forcing himself to look into the drawer itself. 

There was something inside that he recognized as the hazy outline of a square. The object that had created such a border was clearly gone, and Jayler didn't have the slightest idea as to what it could have been. No new dust had settled on the spot, so he assumed inwardly that whatever had been responsible had been moved rather recently. He bit down on his lip, trying to banish the nervous feeling that was quickly rising in his chest. 

Jayler forced himself away from the desk as soon as he was able to convince his legs to move. He shouldn't have been looking around in there. It felt like an invasion of privacy even though Lyloc was no longer alive to be offended by his actions. He shook off the guilt to the best of his ability, but he couldn't help thinking about the square outline that he had stumbled upon. What in the world could have caused such a disturbance in the dust? ]

Someone had been inside of the castle recently. He was sure of it. He didn't know what he was supposed to do about that, but he felt as if he was supposed to tell the rest of the group about it. They had to know if they were going to help him unravel the mystery behind who would have had a motivation to break into the castle in the first place. 

Jayler walked back towards the front of the castle, and his gaze settled on Liathine once again. He approached her slowly before tapping on her shoulder. The Metal mage glanced over at him once she noticed that he was there, and Jayler let out a sigh before speaking. "We need to talk," he said. It felt like the understatement of the century, but he didn't know how else he was supposed to start off the conversation. This was going to be a complicated chat, that was for sure. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need to stop procrastinating 
> 
> -Digital


	18. Chapter Seventeen: Markings in the Dust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Skylian Mages search party continues their investigation.

Explaining the full extent of what he had found involving the square in the dust was difficult for Jayler, but luckily for him, Liathine seemed to catch on without any issues. She was just as perceptive as he remembered, and she understood before he even fully realized what point he was trying to get across. Her eyes narrowed and went dark as she recognized what Jayler was trying to say, and she simply nodded to herself as Jayler finished the remainder of the story. He could tell that she was trying to put the pieces together in her mind that would paint a grander picture of the situation at hand. 

"I see," Liathine muttered simply. Jayler was sure that was the least of what she was thinking, but he didn't want to pester her about it too much. He had full confidence that Liathine was going to find some way to make sense of all this. It was practically her trademark at that point to pull answers from thin air without anyone needing to put forth much effort. He didn't know how she did it, but he decided not to ask her about it either. It was clear that Liathine had more than enough on her plate as it is. 

"What do you think we should do about it?" Jayler questioned when the silence grew to be too much for him to bear. "That means that somebody's been here, but I don't know who it could have been. They were here recently too, but why would they bother coming by? It just doesn't make sense to me."

"They must have wanted whatever was here beforehand," Liathine shrugged. "As far as I can tell, what was taken from the drawer was likely a picture of some sort. The outline in the dust that you described would imply that solution. The drawer in question sounds as if it's a bit too thin to have held a box. We don't have a way of saying for sure what the picture could have been of or why it was there, but I'm sure that we'll figure out a way to find the answer soon enough. You can go on and spread the news to the rest of the Clan Leaders if you want, but I doubt they'll have much more to say on the matter than either one of us does."

Jayler nodded slowly, closing his eyes as he contemplated Liathine's words. He really couldn't think of any reason that someone would want to come by the palace. It had been abandoned for ages as of the time that the Clan Leaders and Draconic Superiors decided to establish it as a home for Hanilia. Many stayed away because they were afraid of the rumors that something was off, so the rare person that would have possessed the confidence to infiltrate the space was likely one of a kind. Jayler knew that there was no way of tracking them down as it was right now, so all they could do was wait until a clue appeared before the team. 

That didn't stop Jayler from wandering back up to the room in question though. He glanced down at the desk that he had been messing with before, and he checked the place where the square outline in the dust could be found. He brushed his fingers along the wood before holding them up to his face. Just as he expected, they came up completely clean. Whoever had infiltrated the palace had been there recently, but he wished that there was something more that he could do. 

The knowledge that he was helpless until something else happened left Jayler feeling uncomfortable, if he was being perfectly honest with himself. It reminded him of his issues regarding the Silver Knight. All he wanted to do was find a way to reach the truth that he had spent so long searching for, but some roadblock or another got in his way. It was frustrating, to put it nicely, though there were a thousand other harsh words that he would have preferred to use. 

All he needed was a name. In both cases, a name would bridge the gap between his lack of knowledge and the revelation necessary to find the truth. He wished that the Silver Knight had been thoughtful enough of the future to think of giving him her name prior to her abrupt disappearance, though he understood why she had held back. At the time, the war had just ended, and she was still getting used to the idea of remaining safe in the aftermath of such violence. Jayler couldn't blame her for her choice, but that didn't stop him from feeling a bit disappointed that he couldn't do more to reach out to her. 

Jayler glanced back and forth between his hand and the desk before him. A sigh pushed free of his lips, and he shook his head. He simply didn't understand what he was meant to do next. There were too many questions swirling through his head for him to even begin to count, and he absolutely hated it. Jayler was fully aware that he was stuck in his tracks as far as his potential investigation was concerned, but it was still frustrating. 

He forced himself to look away from the desk as soon as he could manage it. He needed some time to figure everything out before he would be able to even think of making further progress. Too much was happening, and he knew it. Maybe he simply needed to settle down in the castle that the Clan Leaders were trying to develop. Jayler needed to snap out of this. 

Jayler started to walk away from the room as soon as he was able to force his body to move once again. He could think about everything that was happening elsewhere on Skylia or anywhere else in the Galaxy of Hyperion another time. He had to stay focused. The Hanilia had to come together, and it wasn't as if anyone else was stepping up to the plate, so it fell to him and the Clan Leaders. As much as he longed to continue his investigation, Jayler knew that he had his duties, and his priorities had to lie elsewhere for the time being. 

~~~~~

Jay, Lana, Ronan, and Arian had been on the move for quite some time, simply floating from town to town in search of new information. It was a slow, agonizing process, but Jay knew that there wasn't much else they could do. They didn't have any specific origin points for the rumors that Lana had mentioned, so they would simply have to track down leads themselves. It wasn't ideal or optimal, but nothing in life ever seemed to be. 

"I don't think that any immortals would willingly wander out into the limelight, if I'm being perfectly honest," Arian remarked with a sigh and a shake of his head. The constant movement was clearly starting to grate on his nerves, and Jay could tell that he was desperate for a break. There hadn't been much time for him to relax, all things considered, and Arian's anxiety was starting to hit a boiling point. It was unfortunate, to say the least. Jay wished that she could do something to ease his nerves, but there wasn't an easy solution to the dilemma, so she decided to keep her concerns to herself. 

"You would expect people in most towns to notice that something was going on though," Ronan remarked with a light frown. "I mean, if a regular person saw that one of their neighbors wasn't aging at all, they'd catch onto something being weird. The only reason that nobody realized that I was aging so slowly was because of how hidden away Cloudpeak has always been."

"It looks like we're going to have to keep to small towns if we want to find new information then," Lana said, her eyes slipping shut for a moment. "That's not exactly an easy way to go about this though. There are a thousand small towns on Skylia, and that's not even accounting for the fact that these mystery Hanilia of ours could be hiding somewhere on another planet. We don't really have evidence that they're on Skylia specifically."

"This is starting to feel like we're searching for a needle in a haystack," Arian confessed. "I understand that it's sort of the point of the whole thing, but... I don't like the fact that we have to do so much if we want to find the people who could possibly help Skylia out of a potential crisis."

"I'm positive that something is happening," Jay announced firmly. "All that happened with Cryai makes me believe that there's a figure lurking in the shadows right now. We might not know much more about them than the fact that they're an Ice mage, but... If they're planning to harm Skylia, or any other planet, for that matter, it's our duty to fight back and do what we can to change fate from reaching that twisted outcome."

"You've got a lot of optimism regarding this," Arian commented as a small smile spread across his features. "I don't know how you're able to do it. I try to be confident, but every once in a while, I just hit my wall, and I can't figure out how to drag myself back into reality. I guess that running around like this all the time is making me anxious. I don't know how cut out I am for all of this danger."

Jay's mind was cast back to the battle against the Ice mage within the remains of Nadia, and she remembered how strong Arian had been during the fight. He was far from being on her level, but that was a high bar that not many fighters could surpass due to Jay's history of spending years upon years training to refine her skills to perfection. Still, he had far more experience than she would have expected from someone who claimed that he wasn't much of a fighter. Arian's anxiety regarding battle appeared to be created by a history of violence, but Jay had no evidence to confirm such fully. She had her suspicions, but she didn't want to go around accusing Arian without any evidence. The last thing she wanted was for a chat between them to end in confrontation. Their mission was too important for them to turn against each other and start arguing at such a critical point in their mission. 

"That's okay. Don't worry yourself about it too much," Ronan assured him. He placed one hand on Arian's shoulder gently. "I'm not exactly ready for all of this fighting either, but I'm sure that we'll be able to get through it together. We've got one another to rely on, and I think that's going to make it a lot easier for us to power through. We're better together than apart, right?"

Arian nodded his agreement, and he raised one hand to take Ronan's fingers between his own. "Thanks for that," he said softly, still unwilling to look Ronan in the eye. Jay could tell that he was thankful for Ronan's words, but his lingering embarrassment kept him from properly expressing the depths of his gratitude. 

Jay thought about Arian's words for a long moment before she shook her head. "In all honesty, I don't know if I would really call it optimism," she admitted. "I simply know that there's a lot of work to be done, and I think it would be for the best if we moved on and did what we could to accomplish our mission as soon as possible. There are a lot of people counting on us, and I refuse to let them down."

"You're so proactive about helping other people. I don't know how you can do it. If you ask me, the way that you act reminds me of a hero straight out of a legend," Arian remarked with a small laugh. 

"Heroes and mercenaries aren't exactly the same thing," Jay murmured. She didn't want to even come close to addressing the fact that Arian was far more accurate in his assumption than he had realized, so she chose to ignore his words. Instead, she let her gaze drop to the ground as the group strayed away from the town that they had arrived in most recently. 

"Well, now that we're finished looking around here, maybe we should move on and pay attention to the next town," Lana suggested. "We can go on and teleport there since that would be easier than walking. If we don't need to move on foot, we shouldn't do it. In my opinion, we should conserve our energy in case we wind up coming to blows with someone."

"I hope that we don't have to fight," Ronan said softly, glancing down at the ground after he moved his hand away from Arian's shoulder. "I'm not exactly experienced in battling other people. No soldiers ever came to Cloudpeak, and those that did intrude on the town were taken care of by Mayor Cryai. I think that he was trying to keep me in the dark on purpose for the sake of manipulating me... I never wanted to imagine that he would use me like that, but the facts have made it clear that this is what happened."

Jay felt her heart pull in sympathy at Ronan's words, and she wished that there was more she could do. Ronan's isolation from the world had been the result of Cryai's selfish nature, and pulling him away from that was far easier said than done. He didn't seem to understand the severity of the situation he had been brought into because he had spent so long living as if there wasn't even the slightest possibility of anything going wrong. Cryai's influence could still be felt even after the death of the caretaker of Cloudpeak. 

Lana suddenly drew a circle in the air, and Jay was snapped out of her concerned thoughts at the sight of a portal. Lana was the first to walk through, and after the tip of her ponytail disappeared, Arian trailed after her. Jay gestured for Ronan to go ahead of her, and the boy gave her a curt yet polite nod before following her directions. 

Jay took a minute to follow the lead of her team, and she frowned to herself as she looked around the area one last time. There was a lot to consider involving their search. There were still three more Skylian Mages to search for as far as she was aware, and it would take a long time to find even one of them. Out of the three rumors that Lana had mentioned, only two of them could have been applicable due to the issue of only one Fire mage being able to fit in the group. 

Still, she would have to deal with that issue when the proper time came. She walked through the gate and allowed herself to shift along with the portal. The rest of the world fell away from around her. 

When the light of teleportation faded from around her, Jay was in a completely different location. She blinked a few times to adjust to the new lighting. The primary star of Hyperion, Jariis, was slipping its way over the horizon slowly, and Jay could tell that they had made their way to a different time zone of Skylia. Jariis was often called the sun regardless of its actual title because of how heavy Hyperion's connections were to Earth, and she knew that she had grown up knowing it by that title as well. 

"I hope that we aren't walking directly towards the sun to reach our destination," Arian sighed, following up on Jay's thoughts regarding Jariis exactly. Lana gave him a nervous yet sympathetic smile, and Arian let out a small whimper before shaking his head. "That's exactly what we're doing, isn't it?"

"I'm afraid that we don't have much of a choice on the matter," Lana told him with a small shrug. "This is where we're going to search through next. It might be a nice place to linger for the night as well. I've heard that there's a tavern here that's known for spreading lots of rumors when the stars come out. We can hang around there and see if anybody has access to the information that we're searching for."

"That's why we came here so late in the day!" Ronan realized, clapping his hands together in excitement. "I understand now. That makes sense. How about we go and see what we can find out before the sun goes down? We have some time to spare, and I think that we should use it as much as we can."

Jay nodded her agreement, and she held up one hand to shield her eyes from the overpowering light of Jariis. A few small homes were starting to come into view on the horizon, and she allowed herself to focus on the details of the buildings rather than concentrating on the illumination of the star ahead. The houses were all in rather good condition, and the windows seemed to glow with the gentleness of dusk. In a way, it was almost entrancing, and Jay had to force herself to concentrate on the mission at hand to keep from being too distracted. 

Soon enough, the bulk of the town came into view, and Jay was able to see the space for what it truly was. There weren't many buildings in the area, but there was a splendid hotel that spiraled into the sky. Right next to the hotel was a small building that Jay could only imagine was the tavern. Something about it gave off an almost nostalgic vibe to her, as if it was meant to draw people in with the might of its homey and cozy atmosphere. It was certainly working for her, and she imagined that the rest of the group felt the same way. 

Lana didn't allow Jay to stray too far from their scheduled path though, and she made her way to the hotel. "This area seems far more friendly to passerby than Cloudpeak was. I mean, this area has a reputation for tourists enjoying what it has to offer. It's a small area, but everyone who comes here loves it. I'm sure that there will be at least someone here who has heard something. It's something for us to at least consider when we're looking for the few remaining Skylian Mages," she told the group. 

There was something about Lana's phrasing that bothered Jay. It certainly would have been easier to say that there were three of them left. It was easy to assume that the mages who remained were three in number given the fact that there were three other categories of magic remaining. They had found the Skylian Mages who controlled the Air and Earth subgroups, but Mystic, Fire, and Water yet evaded them. Saying that there were three of them would have been realistic, and nobody would have objected to such an assumption. It simply made sense this way. 

And yet, Lana had chosen to pass up on this opportunity, and Jay didn't like that in the slightest. She was sure that there was a reason for Lana to keep that secret, but she didn't know why Lana was trying to hide it. Then again, Jay had more than a few secrets of her own that she wasn't ready to discuss with the rest of the team, so she should have been more sympathetic and open to the concept than Lana was being. Still, it bothered her, and she made a mental note to corner Lana when they could get away with talking without the boys around. Jay was determined to hear as much as possible when she got the chance, and Lana was the only one who had the answers she was looking for. 

The inside of the hotel was rather nice, and Jay had to admit that the idea of sitting down on something cushioned after their long day of searching was beyond incredible to her. They had started the day later than most, but teleporting so much was not something that she enjoyed. Jay could handle teleporting around a few times, but with how much shifting they had been doing, she was starting to feel nauseous. This had been an issue long before the magical withdrawal came into play, and Jay was sure that the two matters couldn't have been related. 

"This looks like a place out of a fairy tale!" Ronan exclaimed, his eyes wide in surprise. Jay hadn't ever seen him so excited, and she couldn't blame him in the slightest. Given how sheltered Ronan was, it was only natural that he was caught off guard the beautiful decor of the lobby. She had to admit that it was impressive as well. 

In fact, she had only ever seen one other place look this effortlessly incredible. It had been quite some time since she was last there, but she never would have forgotten the appearance of her favorite building in the entire Galaxy of Hyperion. When she closed her eyes, she could still see--

"We'd like two rooms, please," Lana told the receptionist behind the desk. Unlike in Cloudpeak, the receptionist seemed pleasant and open rather than shaded and terrified. She simply smiled to Lana before shifting her attention over to her computer and starting to type away at the keyboard with a speed that seemed almost effortless. 

Jay hadn't even realized how spaced out she had gotten until after Ronan and Arian glanced over at her in concern. She shook her head to show that it was nothing to worry about in her opinion, but she could tell that they weren't buying it. There was no way that she was going to actually discuss it all in detail, so she decided to keep the explanation of what happened as simple as possible. 

"Just thinking," she told them simply. This was far from being sufficient for Ronan and Arian, but if they had further issues with it, they chose not to press her. Instead, they simply looked away, and Jay had to resist the urge to let out a sigh as a reaction. She felt bad for not wanting to talk about it, but she didn't think that she was ready to fully explain the depth of her issues with emotion. Hell, Jay wasn't sure if she would ever be fully prepared to open up to others about the horrors of her past. 

Lana returned to them a moment later, and a bright smile lit her features. She was holding tightly to two keys, and she passed one over to Ronan. The boy looked down at it in fascination, and he smiled to himself as he examined the object in full. "Wow... This sure is fancy," he murmured. 

At first, Jay was thinking that perhaps his wonder was related to his general sheltered nature, but she quickly changed her tune when she actually set her eyes upon the key in question. It seemed to glow in the overhead lighting, and the tint of splendid silver that coated the surface of the key made it radiant and ethereal in a way that no key had a right to be. This town truly did understand that its money came from the tourism industry, and that was where much of the funding went. The homes from before, which appeared simple on the outside, were likely far more complex when the door was actually pushed open. She could only imagine how rich the people in the area were, and she wondered how any could possibly possess such obscene amounts of money on their own. 

Still, she didn't have much time to think about that further. Lana's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "That's for you and Arian. They set us up with a room that's connected through a small hallway between the two different spaces, and we'll be able to see one another when we pass through, but the main areas are still separated before. These keys also work on the doors that keep us out of the hallway, so the key that you and Arian have for the main door will also unlock the door to the hallway. It needs to be unlocked from both sides in order for anyone to actually pass through for the sake of privacy," Lana explained. She was holding to the other key tightly, and Jay could tell that it was meant for the two girls to share. 

Jay immediately realized what the thought of a shared room for her and Lana meant, and she had to resist the urge to focus in on the silver object resting between Lana's fingers. This would be her chance to ask Lana about what she was hiding from the rest of the group. It wasn't going to be easy to get Lana to actually answer her inquiries, but Jay was desperate to try. Lana had clearly put together pieces to the puzzle that Jay was not yet aware of, and if they were to succeed in their mission, the entire group had to hear her out. Lana's insight could easily have wound up being the difference between the full union of the Skylian Mages and their prolonged issues of separation. 

"Let's go on and settle down for at least a little bit before we go to the tavern and talk with the people there," Lana continued, and she gestured for the group to follow her. "The lady behind the desk said that we're going to be on the fourth floor at the far end of one of the hallways. That should make it nice and easy for us to find where we're supposed to be staying. That's for the best since we want to save as much of our energy as possible for tonight when we're going to need to ask everybody about what's been going on both in and out of this town."

"Do you really think that we're going to be able to find anyone there who can help us out with all this?" Arian questioned with a small frown. The group stepped into the hotel's elevator, and Arian reached out to punch the button with two fingers. 

"This town is known for having a lot of gossip in its local tavern. People come here every once in a while to make sure that there isn't any information that they can use for other subjects. At the very least, I think it's worth a try. Shady people stop by here as well under the guise of being simple consumers, and they listen in on other conversations if they have reason to believe that something strange is going on," Lana explained with a light smile. "We should do what we can to find out more, and checking this tavern seems like a great first step to me."

"It's a nice place for us to start from. I agree with you there," Ronan nodded. "I know that there was a tavern back in Cloudpeak too. I went by there every once in a while, and I rather enjoyed being in there when I could. Of course, there wasn't much that I could do since nobody ever thought I was old enough to drink anything alcoholic... Perhaps Mayor Cryai told them that I couldn't have anything regardless of my age. That certainly sounds like something that he would do given the recent profile of his personality that you've proposed to me."

Jay didn't understand how in the world Ronan could remain so chipper and upbeat about everything despite the dismal circumstances that he found himself in. If she had heard about such a large betrayal, she would have been crushed, and moving on would have been the last thing from her mind for ages. Still, Ronan was facing the rest of the world with a smile, doing his best to help out others despite the circumstances that he had been placed in. It was admirable, and Jay couldn't help but wish that she was a bit more like him in that respect. 

Her thoughts were brought a screeching halt as the elevator reached its desired floor of the hotel, and Lana glided out effortlessly. She began to follow the directions that had been given to her along with their room numbers, and the other three members of the group trailed after her in silence. 

Soon enough, Lana stopped moving, and she looked up and down the two doors in question. "Let's go on and head in," she smiled before pressing the key into its respective lock. She opened the door easily and gestured for Jay to walk in first. Jay gave her a small nod before walking inside, and Lana trailed after her once she had given a small wave to the boys. Ronan and Arian followed suit with their own room. 

Jay glanced around once they were inside, and she had to admit that the space was incredibly nice. The lobby most certainly told a story of how incredible the rest of the hotel was going to be. She was almost sad that they were only staying for one night, but it wasn't as if they had a choice in the matter. They were going to have to keep moving if they wanted to accomplish the mission that had been presented to them. 

Jay sat down on the bed that was farthest from the door, and she glanced over to Lana. The other girl gave her a light smile, and Jay frowned internally. She was positive that Lana was hiding something, but she didn't know where to begin. She didn't even have solid evidence that anything was going on. All she could do was wait and see how their inevitable conversation unfolded. 

This was not going to be easy. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This update is coming late at night but sh it's okay
> 
> -Digital


	19. Chapter Eighteen: What Goes Around

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group prepares to gather information from the local tavern after settling in.

For quite a while, there was nothing but silence in the room Jay and Lana were sharing. They were both lost in their own thoughts, and yet they were aware of one another at the same time. Jay kept on giving Lana sideways glances just to make sure that she wasn't going to say anything that would rub her the wrong way. She was positive that Lana had something to tell her about recent events, but she didn't even know where to start in convincing Lana to actually talk about it. 

When the quiet finally broke, it was Lana who shattered the silence. "Is there something that you wanted to ask me?" she questioned, her voice far too kind and open for the situation they were in. Jay was still positive that Lana was dancing around the truth, coming close enough to kiss it but never quite closing the distance. 

"I think that you know something about what's been happening here recently," Jay finally confessed, her gaze hardening into something sharp and interrogative. "If you're aware of something involving the Skylian Mages, you should just go on and tell us. We have too much to get done to let up now."

"I feel like you already know what I'm aware of," Lana remarked with a shake of her head. "In fact, you should know about the things that I've been thinking. They're about you, and I'm positive that you've been hiding them as of late because you aren't sure that you can trust us."

Jay didn't know how to respond to that at first, so she instead looked down at the ground. "If you're trying to get me to talk more about the past, it isn't going to work. I don't like to think about stuff that happened before we started our search for the Skylian Mages," she told Lana, trying to keep her tone from bordering into a territory that sounded too harsh. 

"I know that you don't like to think about it, but you should really try to open up and trust us enough to say what you've been thinking all this time. If you want my opinion, there's a reason that you and Arian were chosen to bring the group together. You haven't admitted it yet, but there's most certainly a cause for you two being paired together of all people. It all starts with you actually deciding that you can open up to us and trust us with the information that you've been hiding since you started assembling the group," Lana continued. 

Jay fell silent at her words, unwilling to offer a cohesive response. She didn't know how Lana could be so calm about all of this when she felt like she was going to explode on the inside. Of course she didn't want to talk about it. Would anybody feel comfortable with freely sharing information in her position? Of course not. It would be ridiculous to assume that. Jay almost wished that she hadn't asked anything of Lana in the first place, but she was positive that it wouldn't have gotten her anywhere. 

"If you really know something about me and Arian, then why don't you at least say what's going on with him?" Jay questioned. "How is he connected to all of this? I know how I tie in with Lyloc, but he... He's a bit of a different story, and it's important for us to find out how he's involved with her."

"I've already mentioned it," Lana confessed. "But if I'm not going to share your secret with the rest of the group, it's only fair that I give him the same treatment. I'm not going to be saying a word until I have solid proof. Right now, I only have suspicions. I know who you are, but I need to find out a bit more in order to say for sure who Arian is and how he ties in with Lyloc."

Jay let out a small sigh, almost having expected her to give that response but not wanting to believe it. She closed her eyes briefly and allowed the silence to fall in around her. She didn't know where to even start in figuring out what was happening with Arian. She was aware that he was a young person who had been forced to fight far too early, but that applied to her as well, and she was positive that their situations were completely different. She just didn't know where the distinction was, and she wouldn't be aware until she was able to take a step back and take note of where the line in the sand was drawn and who could have sketched it in the first place. 

"If you want my opinion, we're going to figure out what happened with him soon enough. Your secret is going to wind up coming out as well. We have fewer Skylian Mages to collect than we realize. There's an elaborate ruse being pulled off right now, and it's keeping the truth from coming to light. There aren't many people left for us to discover, and I think it's time for us to admit that," Lana went on. 

Jay bit her lip, still unwilling to meet Lana's gaze. She was almost positive that Lana's eyes would try to wrestle the truth out of her if she even tried to press honesty out of the other girl. Lana was simply too perceptive, and even though Jay was naturally distant and stoic, she wouldn't even be able to survive an inquiry from Lana if it lasted for long enough. 

"We should probably get ready to go and find out where our next target is," Lana remarked, swiftly changing the subject as soon as she realized that she wasn't going to be learning anything else from Jay. "We've got a lot to get done, and I would rather not wait any longer than we have to."

"We can wait for the boys to say something," Jay supplied quickly as she jumped to her feet. "For now, I want to know about how in the world you managed to figure out what you know about me. Just how much are you aware of? We've never met before all of this began, and yet--"

"I know things," Lana cut her off, shrugging her shoulders loosely. "It comes with the territory of what I do. The City of Steel is a place where people seek out knowledge. I'm no different. I created the City of Steel in the first place because I wanted to calm my own curiosity. I learned that you and Arian were coming to find me, and I was able to put the pieces together about where you came from and who you were rather easily from there. When you take a step back, it all makes sense... Though I suppose that you're not exactly privy to the information about Arian quite yet. I wouldn't worry about it... I'm sure that you'll find out soon enough."

"Quit talking in riddles," Jay sighed. "We're dealing with something serious right now, but you're still in the mood to dance around the answers? We have to figure out who the Skylian Mages are if we want to keep Skylia from slipping into catastrophe. It isn't that hard to say that you're suspicious of someone if you are. In fact, we need something like that. We don't have any leads, Lana. Coming to this town is something, but there are no guarantees that it will actually work. If you know something, just tell us already."

Lana shook her head. "I can't just do that, okay? If I reveal all of your secrets for the world to see, then this team will struggle to work together. I need everyone to come to trust one another on their own. Until you're willing to talk about your issues, then I can't talk about it. I'm not going to break the dynamic of this group before it's even complete," she answered. 

"You said that there were a few left. You never mentioned that there were three of them after we started searching. Why didn't you get specific? It certainly would have been easier for you that way," Jay remarked, her eyes narrowing in Lana's direction. 

"I said what I thought was accurate. Besides... I'm pretty sure that we both know what I'm talking about. Until you're ready to talk about it though, I will maintain my silence. Alright?" Lana questioned, her eyes narrowing in Jay's direction. 

Jay nodded slowly. As much as she hated to admit it, she respected Lana's wishes to keep the truth of what she knew quiet. It would have broken the group's dynamic if they thought that they were constantly at risk of being exposed by one of their members. They needed to come and trust one another on their own. 

Jay wished that she could do that, but she simply couldn't bridge the gap. She liked the rest of the group well enough, but there was no reason for her to want to talk about her history. It was too much for her to think about, so how was she supposed to talk about it openly with the rest of the team? It didn't seem possible. 

If Lana's words were correct, then she was implying that Arian was in the same position as Jay. He clearly had secrets, and Jay was able to pick them apart to a degree. After all, Arian was so much younger than most other experienced fighters were, and he had an aversion to combat that seemed to go deeper than simply disliking the idea of violence. She didn't know how to describe it, but there was something going on, and she didn't like it in the slightest. 

Arian confused her in more ways than one, if she was being honest. Jay knew that he was meant to be about her age, but while she understood her reasons for charging into battle, Arian's remained a mystery to her, further compounded by the fact that he disliked combat to such a degree. Something must have happened to make him realize that violence wasn't for him, that he wasn't meant to be a fighter, and yet he continued regardless. Jay simply wished that she could grasp that simple thread of information. She was sure that the rest of the story would fall apart as soon as she could get that piece of knowledge between her fingers. 

A knock came at the door leading to the room where the boys were staying, and Jay snapped out of her trance immediately. Lana gave her a gentle smile to show that there were no hard feelings between them before moving to the entrance to the room. She opened it easily a moment later, but Jay continued to watch her from afar with wide, silent eyes. 

She didn't understand Lana either, if she was being honest. On the surface, Lana seemed so honest and blatantly emotionally supportive, but that had never been something that Jay could comprehend easily. She knew that there were others who enjoyed allowing themselves to be vulnerable, but she had never been able to do it. If she had even a scrap of sensitivity inside, she shoved it aside the instant that everything went downhill anyways. Could she even access what few traces she had left that would potentially connect her to Lana's kind and open nature?

"Are we ready to get going?" Arian questioned, a light smile on his face. When Ronan and Lana nodded, all eyes turned to Jay in curiosity as to why she was taking so long to respond. She plastered a false smile on her face with reckless abandon and nodded. If the rest of her team recognized that something was wrong, they chose not to point it out, much to her relief, before moving towards the door and heading out into the hallway. 

The path away from the hotel was agonizing to Jay in a thousand different ways, and her stomach twisted angrily again and again with each passing step. She had felt almost safe with the rest of the team earlier in the day, as if she could perhaps begin to embrace them as her companions the way that she had opened her heart to others once in the past, but that had all fallen apart. In its place, she felt uncomfortable and almost suspicious about what they were meant to be doing. 

It wasn't that she didn't have faith in them to support her. In fact, she did, and Jay understood that they would be her rock if she ever found that she needed such security. They were a team whether they admitted it or not, and Jay found them all to be nice and interesting people. It was Jay's own personal issues involving weakness that kept her from fully closing the gap between herself and the rest of the group. She couldn't talk about what had happened to shatter her so completely though. She just couldn't do it yet. Maybe she would be ready for it one day, but until then, she would be left to piece together the full mystery within the spaces that silence left behind, unsure as to what picture she was even trying to create in the first place. 

~~~~~

Colt was tired of being sent around in circles. 

He had received another order from those above him, saying that he had to go and search for more information once again. It was dizzying cycle that he was trapped in, and he detested it. Colt would go out into the field to try and learn more, but when he didn't find anything, he was simply told to figure it out. After all, someone as powerful and independent as the incredible Colt Curre would be more than able to figure out the truth behind a thousand different mysteries at once, right? 

Wrong. He was getting incredibly sick of dealing with this. He had been on the job for years, but that didn't make it easier in the slightest. He felt as if his neck was on the end of a chain, and the people that he worked for enjoyed pulling on the other end just to see him run around in circles for their own amusement. 

It wasn't as if anyone else ever tried to help Colt figure out what he needed to find. He simply received orders that he had to learn more, and he couldn't help but think that if there was a way for him to escape, he would have run away years ago. He had been in the group for as long as he could remember, for his entire life, but that didn't make it fun or at all enjoyable to put up with. Colt longed for a sudden surge of strength and confidence that he could utilize to finally give the world a piece of his mind. He wanted to pummel anyone who dared to tell him what to do, finally unleashing the anger that had lived inside for so long. 

Colt made his way towards his next destination with a heavy heart after finishing his unfortunate conversation with Jubilee. It was clear as could be that she knew something, and Colt was more than willing to grab and hold on for dear life to anything that could be considered useful information. He was tired of being constantly dragged along without any evidence that he would even be able to find out what everyone was asking of him. To put it nicely, it was beyond frustrating to put up with, though Colt would have personally preferred to use a few stronger choice words to properly express how angry it made him. 

He shoved his hands into his pockets before shaking his head and reaching up to slip the goggles that he always wore over his eyes. The cracks had never bothered him, and in a way, they were a sign of rebellion. The goggles were something that his damn superiors could never take away from him no matter how hard they tried to. For once, Colt had something that he could call his own that nobody would ever be able to tear away from his hands, and given how little independence he is, he loved that far more than most other people in his position would. 

He closed his eyes as he stopped walking simply to breathe in the air of the night. If Colt had been in any other situation, he would have already found a way to get out. He was crafty, and if anything stood in his way, he would be able to escape it. The only exception to such a rule was the group that he worked for. No matter where he ran, they would always find him. They had their ways of tracking him regardless of how far he sprinted away. There was no way for him to simply escape no matter how desperate he was to find a way out. 

Colt took off his goggles and stared at them, admiring his dark hair and hollow gray eyes in the broken glass. He looked as if he hadn't been living for years, and he wouldn't have even been surprised if such a statement was accurate. It certainly didn't feel as if he had been living like most others. In fact, he felt like he was nothing more than a hollow shell, and he wouldn't be able to fill in the spaces that his work had left inside of him until after he managed to escape the place that had done so much damage to him in the first place. 

All he needed was a push. If he could get one little thing to happen to shove him over the edge and make him realize that he was doing the right thing by leaving, he would find a way to escape. He wouldn't be able to do it alone without putting himself in danger, but he could sure as hell find another group of people who would be willing to stick by him. Colt had access to information that no other people outside of his line of work did, so perhaps he could trade his knowledge for safety. It was something that he knew was risky, but staying where he was dangerous as well. 

Colt shoved his goggles back around his neck before forcing himself to keep walking. He sighed bitterly and shook his head. All he was asking for was an escape rope, but the universe didn't want to provide it to him. He was too good for this, and it was about time that he actually had the chance to prove it. 

~~~~~

The first thing Jay noticed upon walking into the bar that night was how loud it was. 

There were far more people in the area than she had been expecting. The sun was still descending lazily on the horizon, but given how many people were stumbling about drunkenly, it seemed like the middle of the night. Jay pinched at her nose to keep from being overwhelmed by the smell of alcohol. The scent was so strong that it almost gave her a headache right away. 

Ronan appeared to be in much the same position, and Arian suddenly looked a lot paler than usual. "Why does it smell so bad?" Ronan questioned. He watched as a man at a nearby table picked up a bottle and drained half of it in a single swig, prompting him to let out a sigh. "Oh."

"Yeah," Lana remarked with a nervous laugh and a glance down at the floor. "The good thing is that everyone is probably going to be a bit more lax with information if they're under alcoholic influences. We have to take advantage of that if we want to try and figure out more about the Skylian Mages."

Jay released her nose as she slowly got used to the overpowering spell of alcohol around the main area of the tavern, but she could still feel the threat of a headache pounding in the back of her mind. She glanced around the room to try and find any signs of people who may know what they were doing. 

Eventually, Jay found her eyes settling on a girl who stood behind the bar on the other side of the tavern. She had mahogany hair that was tied into two ponytails that were perfect and entrancing. Her skin was a warm tan that invited the attention of others. Her eyes were a deep brown color, and she was concentrating on pouring a drink for one of the patrons sitting in front of her. Her figure was beyond being impressive, a mix of muscles and curves that captivated anyone who dared to stare at her for too long. Every motion was poetry personified, and Jay could tell that she had more than a little bit of experience with working at the tavern. 

Lana seemed to have picked up on Jay's staring at the girl as well, and she nodded before gesturing that the rest of the group followed her the other end of the tavern. They began to weave in between the noisy patrons of the bar, ignoring shouts of joy as a new song took over the speakers. A few people rolled their eyes before taking mighty gulps from their own cups, and Jay couldn't help but cringe at the sight of the people there. She didn't understand how any of them were alright with looking so blatantly foolish. It was simply beyond her, though she supposed that she wasn't meant to understand situations of this sort. Jay had never been the type to enjoy party atmospheres, instead preferring to find her enjoyment through swinging a sword and being left to think about the tactical advantages of an upcoming battle. While others found it boring, it was perfect for her, and that was what mattered most. 

The girl with mahogany hair was wearing an apron over a red shirt and stylish black leggings that hugged the lower half of her body perfectly. A name tag was positioned over the right side of her collarbone, pinned to the apron and sitting perfectly straight. It read 'Jubilee', and Jay certainly thought such a name fit her. She wasn't sure of how exactly to describe it, but she thought that it was the perfect title for such a naturally poetic person. 

"What can I get you?" Jubilee asked, her voice a slow drawl that distracted from how attentive her sweet eyes were. Jay could feel Jubilee's critical gaze from beneath the surface, and she was positive that Jubilee was observing every little flaw that she was doing her best to hide. It was clear that the other girl was beyond being simply perceptive, having long since passed over into new territory that invited the attention of all those around her. 

"We were just wondering if you would like to talk with us for a while," Ronan said, a wide and friendly smile on his face. He slid his way into an available seat at the bar, and Lana took a place beside him. Arian stood behind Lana while Jay did the same behind Ronan, and the four watched Jubilee with clear curiosity. 

"Oh? That's not something you hear often around here," Jubilee commented. She reached for a towel and began scrubbing down an area of the counter that had been cleared away a moment ago. There was still something inquisitive about her that Jay decided she would rather not probe further on, understanding that Jubilee likely had her reasons for being the way she was. 

"Have you happened to hear anything interesting lately regarding people who have been around for quite some time?" Lana questioned. Her phrasing danced around the subject while still making it clear that she was talking about immortals if someone looked closely enough. "We'd be happy to listen to anything that you have to say."

Jubilee stopped moving for a split second, seemingly examining a streak on the countertop, before continuing her methodical scrubbing. "Depends on what sort of people you're talking about," she remarked in response, her voice detached and airy. She shrugged and leaned against the counter as she draped the towel over a rack off to her left. "Though I suppose that I know exactly what you're here to ask about... Hanilia, aren't you?"

Jay was almost surprised at how quickly Jubilee had been able to pick up on such information, but she did her best to shelve her shock and make it appear as if she didn't know what Jubilee was talking about. "What if we are?" Jay questioned, her eyes narrowing. It was a threat that was hidden beneath the surface, a thousand layers of sickeningly sweet kindness on top. 

Jubilee let out a small chuckle and shook her head. "I am not your enemy," she assured Jay before reaching out her hand to take Lana's fingers between her own. "You can call me Jubilee. I think that introductions are pretty important, you know. Especially when it comes to dealing with people of that nature. Names and faces have a lot of power. An identity can change the game forever. Knowing a person's history will alter your opinion of them forever too. I think it's best to keep things clear-cut and concise when you're in these sorts of shoes. There's not much room for error when you're walking on a high wire, eh?"

Jay processed Jubilee's words carefully, and she couldn't help but think back to the philosophy about names and faces. She had heard it before from people who understood the value of one's identity. In truth, she had heard such words countless times from one person in particular, and Jay had come to believe them quite some time ago. She admired Jubilee's honesty when it came to such a concept, and she had to admit that she felt the same way. It was partially why she didn't want to tell the rest of the group about her past and why she had been dragged into the search for the Skylian Mages in the first place. 

"You're a Hanilia," Arian concluded, his eyes narrowing. "What are you doing in a place like this? You should be out there... I don't know... Saving the world or something! That's what Hanilia have always done, and I think it's really important that we have other people to fill the gap since the Skylox Heroes aren't around to make sure that everyone is safe."

Jubilee clicked her tongue before Jay could properly react to Arian's words. "I never said that I was anything. However, if that's the conclusion that you came to, I suppose that I can't sway your opinion. I have to say that I rather like you four though... There's something about you that simply sits well with me, but... You seem to be a bit out of the loop. After all, this is not the place to be searching for information if you want to learn more about Hanilia," she remarked. 

"It isn't? What are you talking about?" Lana asked, her head tilting lightly to the side in confusion. "We just came by here because we know that a lot of information gets traded in this tavern when night falls."

"You chose well to come here as opposed to other bars, but there's a better spot if you want to hear about where Hanilia can be found. There's been an effort recently by a certain group of people to expand Hanilia influence, you see. If you want my opinion, you can find all the information that you could possibly want to know back at their base," Jubilee explained. 

"And just where is their base?" Jay inquired. This was the first that she was hearing of any groups that were experts on Hanilia. Chances were that this was a recent development. If it had created before her search for the Skylian Mages began, Jay certainly would have come across it when she and Arian were doing research on where they were meant to begin their investigation of the planet. 

"It's in a castle. I'm sure that you all remember the old place where the Skylox Heroes lived and trained, yeah? They took up residency in there, and they're apparently planning on making it a hub for all of the Hanilia who are around in this current generation. I'm honestly shocked that you haven't heard about it," Jubilee said with a shrug. "The project was only started a short while ago, but given what you're looking into, it feels like something you would want to know about."

"Excuse me?" Jay questioned. She wanted to say more, but she simply couldn't force the words to form. There was no way that Jubilee was being serious about that, right? Why would anyone decide to take over the palace where the Skylox Heroes were? Why hadn't she heard about it? The castle was a piece of Skylia's history, and it felt wrong that they were running inside and stomping all over the memories of heroes who had died in the name of keeping Skylia and its people safe from the Fearbringers. 

Jay's first thought as she realized all of this was that she had to get out. She had escape the smell of alcohol and the damn noise that rang in her ears like the most aggravating bell ever created. Her body moved without her command, and she was running towards the door before she knew it. Something unrecognizable was mounting in her chest, and she couldn't tell if it was anger, sadness, grief, or some mix of the three. She didn't even care if anyone chased after her. All she wanted to do was think in that moment, but somehow, Jay was positive that even if she had all the time in the world to process this information, she would never fully come to terms with it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I slept so much today it was beautiful
> 
> -Digital


	20. Chapter Nineteen: Secrets Shared

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group hears more from Jubilee inside the tavern.

Jay didn't stop moving away from the tavern until the din of people and alcohol was but a distant memory. She found herself on the outskirts of the town, and she immediately chastised herself for not thinking to go back to her room in her moment of brief anger and panic. Instead of continuing to walk around though, Jay simply sat down, and she closed her eyes before pressing her face into her hands. She was on the curb of the outside street of the town, and while she was normally opposed to sitting down on the side of the road this way, she was too distressed and upset by Jubilee's explanation of events to bother even giving a second thought to her regular morality. 

Jay continued to press down on her eyes with her fingers until she saw stars in the darkness that had consumed her vision, and she pulled her hands away with an aggravated sigh. This was not what she had wanted. She would have expected to hear about something this important sooner, but it seemed that the universe had other plans for her. It wasn't her fault that such knowledge had managed to evade her, but it bothered her regardless. She suspected that everyone who was running the show there had moved in while she was occupied with finding Lana and Ronan, and since they had been forced to deal with Cloudpeak, Jay had no way of learning about what was taking place back at the palace where this had all began. 

Someone sat down to Jay's side, and she looked up to see that Lana had taken a seat beside her. Arian appeared on her other side, and Ronan sat on Arian's other side, creating a row of four misfits on the side of the road. Jay glanced back and forth at them before shaking her head and closing her eyes. "Sorry about running off," she eventually managed to say, though she couldn't bring herself to be fully apologetic. There was too much running through her head to bother with such formalities. All she wanted to know was why this had happened. Who had thought it was a good idea to take over the palace in the first place?

"Why did you leave so suddenly?" Ronan questioned. His eyes were wide with curiosity in a sincere way that made Jay's stomach twist. Even though she was averse to talking about the past, she wasn't sure if she would be able to avoid his pleading gaze for much longer than she already had. Everything about Ronan was simply too pure and sweet for her to try and block it out. 

Jay still didn't answer his question immediately though. Instead, she swallowed dryly to try and ground herself back in reality. She wanted to go back to her room and hide until she was either ready to confront this issue or had the power to hide from it. She wasn't sure which one was going to come first though, so she was going to have to deal with the worried gazes of her companions. 

"I just didn't expect to hear about that," Jay finally said slowly, choosing her words carefully to make sure that nobody found them to be strange. She felt strange about this, and even dancing close to the truth of her past was unfamiliar to her. She wanted to drop the subject, but she couldn't help the way that everyone was begging her silently for assistance in understanding why she had gotten so upset. 

Then there was the matter of Lana. Jay couldn't bring herself to look over to the other girl because she could feel Lana's eyes on her no matter how much she tried to escape and ignore it. Lana was going to tell her to talk about her issues instead of bottling them up, and even if Jay knew that she had an issue with this, she couldn't bring herself to mention it. She had been keeping everything secret for so long that she didn't even know how to start in saying where she had come from. 

"Do you know something about that place?" Arian questioned, though Jay could tell that he already knew the answer. It was obviously in the affirmative even if the details yet eluded the rest of the group. She was the only one who would be able to tell them, but actually bringing herself to talk about it was far easier said than done. 

Jay was silent at first as she tried to formulate a response. "I don't want to talk about it," she muttered. This was true in a way that she couldn't ever fully describe. The pain was too fresh and raw, and even coming close to it made her feel as if she was going to be sick. Why did the universe insist on treating her this way? She absolutely despised it. 

"Should we go back to the tavern and see if we can learn more about all of this?" Arian asked, tilting his head slightly to the side. He was clearly intent on respecting the boundaries that Jay had created, and he wasn't going to smear the lines of her own creation unless she gave him permission. Jay couldn't even begin to say how relieved she was at Arian's lax nature, and she suddenly understood with a new vengeance why Lana had been so firm about not saying anything that she knew. 

Jay attempted to offer a response to Arian's words for a long moment before she nodded. As much as she wanted to run away from all of this, she knew that it wouldn't help anyone. If they were going to find out more about the other Skylian Mages, they were going to have to go back to the scene of their only lead no matter how averse Jay was to the idea. She would have all the time in the world to think about what was taking place in the palace after they had spoken to Jubilee. 

Slowly but surely, Jay rose to her feet, and she stretched her arms above her head in a silent attempt to calm her nerves. It didn't work quite as well in practice as she had been hoping, but it wasn't as if she could do anything about it aside from face the issue head on. Jubilee hadn't even realized that she was going to have a reaction this strong, and it was clear from the way the waitress spoke that she was aware of something involving the Hanilia that they were searching for. This was the only way that they were going to come anywhere close to finding the truth, and Jay knew that they had to take advantage of it. 

The walk back to the tavern was silent, but Jay could feel Lana's eyes on her the whole way there. She refused to fully acknowledge Lana's stare, knowing that the other girl was trying to persuade her to honesty. Jay knew that Lana was right, but she simply couldn't bring herself to be truthful about the past. She hated thinking of it, so how could she ever consider talking about it? Jay had been so quiet about her past up until that point because the quest to find the Skylian Mages had been a convenient distraction from truths that she was desperate to ignore. She didn't want to ignore that when she was finally finding a purpose to her life again after so long. 

Jay would tell them later. She wasn't sure precisely when she would have the confidence to be honest, but she would find the chance sooner or later. For the time being, all that mattered was talking to Jubilee and figuring out what she knew when it came to the Skylian Mages. 

~~~~~

Jayler was excited. 

The Clan Leaders had truly managed to clean up the palace thanks to a day of quick work, and they were ahead of schedule by a decent amount. They had school off the next day, and at Xia's suggestion, they were staying overnight on Skylia. After they called their parents to explain that they were going to be spending the night elsewhere and would come back the next day, they started to settle in. Jayler couldn't help but be reminded of their nights on Daragon during the war against the Fearbringers, though this was a far better environment for having fun. The tension of battle no longer lingered in the air, and Jayler had the sneaking suspicion that he would actually be able to enjoy himself with the rest of the team nearby in a happier setting than what they were used to from overnight stays in Hyperion. 

The main area of the castle was their target for the time being. They were going to divide soon enough since there were more than enough rooms for them to all have their own space, but Jayler figured that it was best that they hang out together for as long as possible. He wanted to enjoy this, after all. 

He leaned forward and settled onto his stomach while holding a pillow to his chest. His feet kicked lazily behind him as he listened to Xia recount a story from her chunk of cleaning the castle. It was clearly dramatized, but it wasn't as if any of them actually minded. Simply being around one another was more than enough. 

Jayler still didn't know what they were supposed to do about the subject of the hole in the dust he had brought up to Liathine. He had already told the group about what he had found, but there wasn't an easy explanation for him to latch on to when it came to why there was a hole in the dust. He thought for as long as he could manage about why this could have been the case, but nothing came to mind. 

He shook it off and focused on Xia's story once again. This wasn't the time to think about business. The Clan Leaders would be able to get back to cleaning out the castle the next day. For the time being, they deserved to enjoy one another's company. They had made significant progress on turning the palace into a paradise for the Hanilia warriors that they would be allying themselves with in the future. It was time for them to kick back and have some fun. They most certainly needed the chance to feel proud of all they had accomplished, after all. 

Jayler smiled as the rest of his team erupted into laughter at an offhand comment from Gemini regarding Xia's story, and he found himself taking in the full beauty of the atmosphere in the silence. He didn't know what he would do without the presence of his friends to make this adventure a bit less daunting. Even if the future was uncertain, he at least had them, and he couldn't have asked for a better collection of comrades no matter how hard he tried. 

~~~~~

Jubilee was still going about her regular business when Jay, Lana, Arian, and Ronan returned to the tavern. The seats in front of the counter that they had been occupying prior to Jay's running off remained unoccupied despite the bustle of the rest of the tavern, and Jay couldn't help but wonder if Jubilee had saved the chairs for them deliberately. She certainly wouldn't have put it past Jubilee to know that they were going to be returning sooner or later. 

"It's good to see you four back," Jubilee remarked airily as she scrubbed out a cup using a white towel. She shoved the rag back into her apron pocket a moment later before placing the glass in its position inside of a cabinet behind her. She turned around and leaned against the counter, pressing her elbow against the granite as a light smile spread across her features, the peak description of mischief. "You wanted to learn more about Hanilia, yes?"

"Could you tell us more about what happened with the castle first?" Lana asked, jumping right to the point. Jay was positive that Lana was asking Jubilee this on her behalf. Given how anxious Jay still was about it all, she was grateful that Lana was able to understand the situation and speak for her. Jay wouldn't have been able to ask Jubilee for more information without remembering a bit too much for her liking. 

Jubilee nodded. "The Clan Leaders and Draconic Superiors moved in there a short while ago. They want the castle to be a hub for the Hanilia of Hyperion. Of course, only those two groups have actually gotten around to visiting the place. It's still being reformed as far as I can tell. I mean, the place was left to fall apart after the Skylox Heroes were defeated. It's not as if anyone was still around to take care of it after the Battle of Nadia. Everyone who had once lived there was gone," she explained. 

Jay glanced down to the counter, admiring the patterns found on the stone before her. Having a place for all of the Hanilia to meet up and discuss matters taking place across Hyperion was a good idea. She didn't think that there had been such coordination among Hanilia factions in quite some time. The last time that all of the Hanilia had come together in such a way was during the original war against Loki, but that had been centuries upon centuries ago. The Clan Leaders and Draconic Superiors were attempting something new, and Jay certainly couldn't fault them for that regardless of how shocking their actions had been to her. 

"Do you think that any Hanilia have gone there recently?" Ronan questioned, tilting his head to the side in a silent show of curiosity. His feet were kicking back and forth as he watched Jubilee quietly. Poor Ronan was too short for his feet to properly rest on the bar that ran around the halfway point of the tall chair's legs, though he didn't seem to mind it in the slightest. 

Jubilee shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't gone there myself. I can say that there are a few people who have come from that part of Skylia though, and they've mentioned that a lot of work has been done on it. People are actually starting to get curious about what's going on in the castle again. Up until recently, everyone was scared that the place was somehow haunted. It's a ridiculous fear to have, but I guess the climate is different all over the planet," she replied. 

Jay had heard about the rumors of the palace being haunted. She had never bothered to give them the time of day, always recognizing that she knew better than to fall victim to such childish fears. The palace was far from being haunted, and even if it had been, Jay was sure that she would have been on good terms with the theoretical ghost within by that point. 

"How did you stumble upon all of this information?" Ronan asked, his eyes glimmering with curiosity as he watched Jubilee. He leaned forward to place his arms on the countertop so that he would be able to get a better look at her, and he cupped his head in his hands. 

Jubilee chuckled to herself with a shake of her head. "I know a lot of things," she started simply. "There are people who come here and talk, and I happen to overhear what they say. People aren't exactly good at keeping quiet when they come to places like this, so I take advantage of that. There's a way to find out everything if you have the right informants. Any secret that has been shared with more than one person isn't a secret anymore if you want my opinion. Others might have their own thought processes, but that's how I look at it."

"You eavesdrop then," Arian concluded, but he didn't seem accusatory in the slightest. In fact, he didn't seem to mind that Jubilee was doing such at all. Without her assistance, they never would have heard about the Hanilia palace that was in development. 

"If people don't want you to listen in, they shouldn't talk so loudly in a public space like this," Jubilee shrugged. "It's like they completely forget how to talk quietly when they get enough alcohol in their system. I simply know how to listen well, and it's not as if anybody tries to stop me. They aren't trying to keep it secret, so why would I?"

"I see," Ronan nodded to himself, though he was speaking more under his breath than to anyone else in the area. "Thank you for all of your help. We're going to have to look around and see if we can look for anybody at the Hanilia palace."

"We aren't exactly keeping our investigations here a secret. Does that mean that you're going to be telling others about this conversation?" Jay questioned. She simply had to know, though part of her was sure that she already had an answer. Something about Jubilee's mischievous eyes made it clear that she was going to be sharing this information if the right party asked. 

However, much to Jay's surprise, Jubilee shook her head. "I have my own reasons for not wanting to tell the world about your explorations. I'll simply put it that way... I do think that you're going to be able to accomplish great things as soon as you figure out what you're up to. Of course, you're still missing a few key details... Skylian Mages," she replied. A snicker left her lips as she leaned against the counter, examining every shocked feature on the quartet's faces. 

"You know something," Lana said bluntly, crossing her arms over her chest. "Why don't you go on and tell us what it is? If you're aware of who we are, then you must know that our mission is incredibly important. You're being oddly helpful with us compared to all of the other people in this tavern. You haven't even touched your work since we walked in."

Jubilee shook her head. "I'm afraid that I can't just give out information like that... If you happened to find out on your own though, that would be a different story," she commented nonchalantly. She glanced around the area briefly before gesturing for the other four members of the conversation to lean in closer. "I do have one piece of information for you though... An odd man came in here earlier. It was way before you came in, so it's not like you missed him by accident or anything... He definitely ties into this whole thing somehow. I could just tell."

"Tell us everything that you know about him," Jay said bluntly, her eyes narrowing in Jubilee's direction. It seemed possible that Jubilee and this mysterious man were their tickets to figuring out who the remaining Skylian Mages were. In fact, Jubilee's strange phrasing almost implied that she was one of the mages who they were still searching for. Jay wasn't going to accuse Jubilee of being in such a position without evidence though, knowing that Jubilee wasn't going to fall for anything that she had to say unless she had irrefutable proof of her claims. 

Jubilee nodded and closed her eyes for a brief moment, almost as if she was playing back the events involving this mysterious man through her mind once again. "You see, he came here because he knows that I have a way of figuring things out. He thought that I would be able to help him when it came to solving his issues. He's looking for a reason to escape a large corporation that he works for. At the very least, that's the image that I got from him," Jubilee explained. "He left before we could really get much of anything out of each other. His name was Colt though. Perhaps you can use that to your advantage."

Jay gave a brief glance over to Lana before her eyes found the rest of the group. That certainly aligned with what they knew about the issues with the immortals. If this Colt character truly was one of the Skylian Mages that they were searching for, then this would be the perfect path for them to follow to figure everything out that had not yet been determined. Jubilee's involvement with everything only made it seem that they were closer than ever before to fully discovering the truth behind the Skylian Mages. 

"Thank you for this," Lana told Jubilee with a polite nod. "We're going to do what we can to learn more about Colt... And, as a matter of fact, we're going to try and learn more about you too. If you won't tell us openly what you want, then we'll simply have to figure it out on our own... Though something tells me that it's exactly what you want us to do."

A smirk spread across Jubilee's features, and she let out a low laugh as she shook her head. "That's something you're going to have to decide for yourself. It's none of my business what you do on your own time. Just come back here if you find that you need anything else." She winked before walking away, and Jay could tell that their conversation was over. 

Still, Jay felt as if they had made great progress. Jubilee had been able to introduce the idea of the Hanilia palace to them, and Jay had the sneaking suspicion that this was going to be something important to keep in mind from then on. Jubilee's mentioning Colt was another advantageous statement that Jay knew her team would be able to use in the future. As soon as they were able to figure out what was happening with Jubilee, they would be able to worm a few extra answers out of the other girl. 

As the quartet walked out of the building, Lana spoke up. "I think that she's a Hanilia too," she said firmly. "She talked about how people like us need to stick together, and that seems like perfect evidence to me that she's a Hanilia who hasn't seen a reason to stick to her duties before now."

"The only active Hanilia groups in the past few months have been the Clan Leaders, Draconic Superiors, and Fearbringers... It's clear that she isn't from one of those three categories, and it makes me think that perhaps she's got something to do with the Skylian Mages," Jay remarked next. "She just doesn't want to be the one to admit it. She wants us to figure that out on our own for some reason. I suppose that there's nothing we can do to force her into honesty, but... It's something that we're going to have to consider. We need proof so that we can make her open up."

"I agree," Arian nodded. "We can look into Colt while we're trying to find out more about Jubilee. The description of Colt seems to fit in with what we've already heard about, so we can start with him. Besides, we know where Jubilee lives and works, so that should make it easier to learn more about her too."

"Perfect. It's nice to hear that we have a plan," Ronan grinned. "Why don't we head back to the hotel so that we can start looking around? Well, I feel like Lana will probably do most of the looking, but... You know what I mean. I think that it would help us out a lot if we were out of the chaos."

Jay nodded her agreement, and the quartet exited the tavern before turning their attention to the hotel in question. As they made their way up to the floor where their rooms could be found, Jay stared down at her feet, watching every step that she took with something detached yet critical in her eyes. She wanted to know how they were meant to learn more about the Skylian Mages, but she simultaneously had faith in Lana's skills. She was confident that the other girl would be able to figure out everything that she thought was important for them to know about. 

Jay did feel strange where Lana was concerned because of their past discussion from before the group went into the tavern. She didn't quite know how to navigate conversation with Lana anymore, not that she would have ever admitted such a fact openly. Jay wanted to be honest the way that Lana wanted her to be. Above all else, Jay wanted to be able to talk about it. Still, there was always something that held her back between the excuses that she always made and the pain that lingered in the back of her mind. Jay didn't know if she would ever be able to be honest about the past, but part of her suspected that Lana would ask her to open up at some point. It was just a matter of time before Lana started to press a bit harder as her patience began to slip. 

Jay didn't even notice that the group had gotten back to their hotel rooms at first, but Lana tapped her on the shoulder to bring her out of her autopilot trance. Lana gestured for Jay to follow her into their room, and the mercenary did so silently. Once they were inside, Lana moved to open the door that led to the hallway into the boys' room. Lana sat down on her bed before reaching into her pocket and pulling out a spherical device. A hologram appeared from a small lens on the top, and Lana began to slide her fingers across it as her eyes darted in every direction. 

Arian and Ronan came in soon afterwards, and they both sat down on either side of Lana while Jay elected to sit on her own bed for the night. Lana frowned to herself as she started to look around, and all Jay could do was stare. She knew that Arian and Ronan were both speaking about what was happening with Lana, but Jay wasn't fully registering what they were saying. In fact, there was nothing that seemed to fully go through her brain. She felt like an absolute disaster, if she was being perfectly honest. 

Jay didn't quite snap out of her trance until after Arian and Ronan had gone back to their room. Jay figured out belatedly that the general consensus was that they were going to wait until tomorrow to actually start digging. They were all exhausted from doing so much traveling across Skylia throughout the day, and they needed a chance to kick back and relax. Lana's weary smile confirmed their words, and she allowed her spherical device to return to her pocket as she started to settle in for the night. 

The hotel room fell silent, and Lana's breathing evened out into a predictable pattern soon enough. Still, Jay couldn't sleep, and she stretched out across her mattress and stared at the ceiling with glossy eyes. She could already tell that this was going to be a long night, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop thinking about what Lana had said. Jay wanted to talk, but her lips remained firmly sealed despite her best efforts. 

Even though she was awake, it felt like she was living through a nightmare. 

~~~~~

Jayler wasn't sure what woke him up at first. 

He and the rest of the Clan Leaders had divided into their own rooms for the night a few hours prior. It was more comfortable for them to all have their own beds rather than using sleeping bags on the floor of the entryway, so they elected to meet up again in the morning. Jayler had been more than happy with waiting until the next day since he knew just how hard the floor could be where the palace was concerned. 

Jayler had been sleeping soundly for quite some time since he parted ways with the rest of his companions, but he had snapped awake upon hearing something. Jayler couldn't be sure about what it was, but he wasn't sure if he would be able to settle back into bed until he figured it out. He was positive that the culprit wasn't a rogue tree branch given how there weren't any trees directly surrounding the palace, and Jayler couldn't tell if that was a relief or even more frightening. 

A shadow darted past his window, and Jayler went tense. He shot up in bed and practically threw the blankets off the lower half of his body before he walked over to the window. He braced his hands against the base of the glass before hauling it open, but he cringed when he realized that it was far heavier than he had been anticipating. Jayler shook out his hands to try and release the tension that had formed in his fingers, but he was soon distracted by something else that made him go perfectly still. 

Jayler could see the shadow sprint past the opening in the wall once again, and Jayler took a few steps back instinctively. He was ready to either transform or sprint if the other figure showed themselves to be dangerous. Jayler snapped, and a fire appeared in the palm of his hand, ready to release itself into the air at a moment's notice. 

It was never necessary to attack. 

Instead, a familiar shape slid into the room, and Jayler's eyes went wide. He stared at the outline kissed by moonlight and tried to determine if this was real or some sort of dream. He pinched himself just to be sure, but pain shot through the lower half of his arm as evidence that he was currently living in reality. Still, he barely noticed the ache, too focused on the person who stood before him to notice. 

"It's been a while, Jayler," the Silver Knight said. "How have you been?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooooooooh cliffhanger
> 
> -Digital


	21. Chapter Twenty: Promised Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jay and the Silver Knight finally see each other again.

No matter how many times Jayler blinked, he couldn't get his mind to agree with his eyes that what he was seeing was real. He knew realistically that the Silver Knight had to be there, but he found it difficult to believe in full. He had spent so many weeks waiting for her to appear before him once again, and there she was. The last time they had met, she had said that she wasn't going to be using her armor and mask the next time that they crossed paths, and Jayler was inclined to wonder if this was a dream or not despite having already pinched his skin between two fingers to make sure. 

"What are you doing here?" Jayler finally managed to ask, barely pushing the words through his teeth. He found himself taking a small step forward, reaching out towards the Silver Knight even though he knew that he wasn't going to actually touch her. She was there, yes, but he wasn't going to cross any lines by getting too close without permission. 

"I heard that you were back in the Galaxy of Hyperion," the Silver Knight replied with a loose shrug. The motion was jerky and unpracticed. "I figured that I would stop by to see how you were doing... You're in a palace, so I would say that you're doing rather well for yourself... But I assume that you know the history of this place and why it's so significant to the people of Skylia, yes?"

Jayler nodded his confirmation. "Yeah, I do," he told her. "This used to be the base of operations for the Skylox Heroes, but it's been left abandoned ever since they all fell in battle ages ago... The Draconic Superiors figured that this would be the perfect place for us to operate out of. We're trying to make a place where all Hanilia can gather and cooperate together. There hasn't been something like this in a long time, so we thought that we would at least make an attempt to try and foster connection among the different factions of Hanilia."

The Silver Knight nodded slowly, hearing his words but not seeming ready to fully register them. "I understand," she murmured before glancing back up to Jayler. He could tell that she was meeting his eyes even if they were hidden behind the silver of her armor. "It's nice to see that you're back in the Galaxy of Hyperion... You managed to return to Earth safely and then get back here."

"Yeah," Jayler confirmed. He had been waiting for this moment for so long, a thousand questions seemingly always swirling in his mind, but when he stood there in front of her, nothing came out. He was sure that he had a million different things to ask her, but nothing would leave his lips, so he simply stared at her and wondered what could have coaxed her out of hiding to speak with him once again, and using the armor from the war with the Fearbringers no less. 

The Silver Knight seemed to understand that he was curious about such, so she decided to explain. "I'm here because I wanted to see you again," she said simply. "I have another mission right now, and that's keeping me from being able to show you my face. I would love for us to meet in another way, but this is all that we can do for the time being. I hope that you'll forgive me for hiding even after I told you that I wouldn't be doing that anymore."

"It's fine," Jayler assured her. If the Silver Knight was right about the importance of names and faces, then he wasn't going to fault her for hiding what she thought was important to keep secret. After all, she had far more experience living and fighting in the Galaxy of Hyperion than he did, and he doubted that such a fact would ever change. She knew what she was doing, and all he could do was chase after her shadow. 

The Silver Knight allowed her hand to rise, and she coughed briefly to attract his attention and change the subject. "How have you been doing?" she questioned. "I didn't know that you were back in the Galaxy of Hyperion until recently. I suppose that there's been a bit too much happening for anyone to focus too much on gossiping about the return of you and the rest of the Clan Leaders. These are exciting times that we live in, especially given that Daragon is still recovering from the aftermath of the war against the Fearbringers."

"I understand," Jayler told her with a shrug and a wry smile. "I'm just glad that we were able to meet up one way or another. That's the most important thing in my eyes. Besides, we're going to get all sorts of chances to talk to each other more in the future, so why should we worry about a bit of lost time?" 

The Silver Knight hesitated before letting out a sigh. "I'm afraid that our rendezvous is going to have to wait a while longer... I need to finish my current mission before I can come out of hiding. I've been trying to accomplish something for a short while now, and I need to take care of it for the sake of keeping everyone safe. I don't want to bring trouble to the operation that you, the rest of the Clan Leaders, and the Draconic Superiors have been working towards. You can finish up business here while I take care of my other issues," she said. 

Jayler wished that he could have said that he was surprised, but he had known that something was off from the moment that she appeared before him with the armor still on. He nodded and pressed a grin to his face despite how disappointed he was that he would have to wait even longer to see her. Then again, he had been in the dark for so long already, so what was a little while longer? "I understand," he said simply, not bothering to explain the extent of his wishes. 

The Silver Knight nodded her gratitude, and he could feel her smile rather than seeing it. The room fell silent after that, and Jayler found himself examining all of the smaller details in her armor. It was just as he had remembered it, almost as if nothing had happened to separate them in the first place. It was impressive how little she had changed, and Jayler almost took comfort in the fact that she was the same as she always had been. That put a fear of his to rest that he wasn't even aware of prior to that moment, and his shoulders sagged with relief. 

Jayler's thoughts of peaceful relief were suddenly cut off by an intrusive whisper from the back of his mind, and he found himself voicing his worries before he could stop himself. "Hey... Are you okay with all of this?" he questioned. "Us moving into the castle, I mean. After all, you spent a lot of time here before everything changed... You lived with the Skylox Heroes, so if you were upset about it, I don't think I would be able to blame you."

The Silver Knight was quiet for a long moment that seemed so much heavier than all of the previous points of the conversation. Jayler realized that her silence was giving him the answer he sought, and he did his best to hide his cringe at the revelation. He bit down on his lip, waiting for her to say something before his mind could get the best of him with rampant assumptions. 

"I"m going to get over it," the Silver Knight eventually replied. "I don't know what I was expecting to happen with this place, but... I guess I thought that it was going to remain isolated and abandoned for the rest of time. That isn't exactly realistic, but I didn't ever give it much thought. I certainly didn't anticipate anyone moving in so soon after the fall of the Skylox Heroes. I can't exactly fault Tuila for what she's doing since I know she has good intentions, but... I guess that it does bother me a little bit."

"You should tell somebody about this," Jayler advised. "I mean... If you really have such heavy ties to this place, then you deserve to have a say in everything. You lived with the Skylox Heroes, so it's only natural that you're upset with how everything is turning out. Nobody is going to be mad at you for that."

The Silver Knight shrugged once more, and Jayler did his best to keep from wincing at how forced the action was. "I can't exactly do that without explaining who I am, and... I would rather not do that. I believe that it would bring down all of the time that I spent trying to conceal my true name and face from the rest of the world. There's a reason that not many people are aware of the truth behind me," she told him. 

"Do you not want to talk about it?" Jayler questioned carefully. "Sometimes, the hardest things to talk about are the things that we need to discuss most. It might help you to say that you want to help out with the expedition here. I mean, getting involved with this place that's so dear to your heart might help you to feel better about everything that's been happening."

The Silver Knight let out a sigh. "I don't know," she confessed. "There are some things that are meant to be hidden, but... That doesn't mean that I want such to be the case. The situation is complicated, and I'm going to have to wait until the end of my current mission at the absolute earliest before I'm ready to explain what my connection is to both this palace and the Skylox Heroes."

"Is this going to be the last time we see each other before you're done with the mission then?" Jayler asked. He prayed that her answer was negatory. Part of him wanted to make sure that she stayed by his side until after everything had been said and done. He would know that she was safe if she was right there with him, and after all the time they had spent apart from one another, Jayler found himself oddly desperate. He had only barely been able to get to know her before they were torn apart by his return to Earth, and he didn't want that connection to be severed once again. 

"I'm not sure," the Silver Knight told him. Her answer was immediate, and she seemed far more confident in it than her discussion regarding the palace itself. "Last time we spoke, I said that I wouldn't be seeing you again until after the war ended. I also said that when we met, I would be able to shed my armor. It's true that we didn't see each other once more until after the battle had truly drawn to a close and the restoration process began, but... I'm still wearing all of this armor, and it will be a while before I can fully remove it and live as myself without concerns regarding the rest of the world."

"If you want to stay here, then you can," Jayler muttered. "I don't think that you need to wander around on your own just because you have a mission to resolve at the moment. I mean, you could always operate out of this building. I don't think that anyone would object if you said that you wanted to stay here while waiting for major events to happen involving your current work."

"I have another place to be, I'm afraid," the Silver Knight answered, a light sigh leaving her lips. "I would love to be here, but there is another location that requires my attention first, and I don't think that I'll be able to abandon it for quite some time yet. One day though... One day, I won't need to hide who I am. Everyone will be aware of who we both are and how we're connected, and when that time comes, I'm never going to be returning to the armor again."

"I'm going to be waiting for you until you come back here, you know," Jayler told her. He could tell that she was getting eager to leave, to take care of whatever mission she had on her plate at the moment, and he was almost ready to allow her to depart. After all, the sooner that she was finished with her primary mission, the sooner she would be able to come back to his side, and she wouldn't be leaving when she next returned. It was all a rather selfish thought process, but Jayler never claimed to be an angel. 

"I know," the Silver Knight said. Once again, he could hear the smile through her words. The Silver Knight didn't give him much time to think it over though, instead taking a step forward and closing the distance between them in the blink of an eye. Her arms wrapped around his body, and Jayler found himself melting against his sister's grasp. He had missed this more than he could ever articulate, and he wanted her to stay for longer despite the knowledge that such would not be possible for quite some time. 

The next few moment seemed to play out in a timeless vacuum. The Silver Knight pulled away from him and moved towards the window once again. "I'll be back," she told Jayler when she tilted her head over her shoulder. Her fingers raised and snapped together, prompting the air around Jayler's body to begin to spin. The Silver Knight was gone in the seconds that followed. 

Jayler recognized what was happening as soon as she was gone. The window creaked in the night, unleashing a small gust of wind upon his face as he stumbled back to his bed. She had used a sleeping spell of some sort on him, and he was almost thankful for her generosity, knowing that he never would have been able to return to slumber after their encounter. He had another long, difficult day ahead of him, and he was going to need as much rest as possible. Jayler hadn't even realized that he needed the help until after she had already offered it, but he supposed that was simply par for the course where the Silver Knight was concerned. She seemed to know him better than he knew himself. 

Jayler's eyes began to slip shut as soon as his face pressed against his pillow. He didn't bother trying to fight against his body's urge to rest, and he was drifting in the world of sleep soon afterwards. His dreams were filled with visions of the Silver Knight as he wondered when they would be seeing one another again. He could still remember all of the details of her armor even in sleep. 

~~~~~

The next morning, the first thing Jayler did was check the window. 

He swung his legs over the side of the bed as he stretched his arms to the sky. He yawned and raised one hand to cover the dramatic action before his gaze fell upon the window on the other side of the room. As soon as he remembered what happened the night before, he practically leapt to his feet, and he ran over before bracing his hands against the bottom of the window. He peered out with immense curiosity, feeling the gentle breeze of a Skylia morning kissing at his cheeks carefully as he smiled without restraint. 

Everything from the night before had been real. 

As relieved as he was to know that everything that he had imagined with the Silver Knight from the night prior had actually happened, Jayler didn't know what he was meant to do next. She had said that it was going to be a while longer before she was able to fully interact with him once again, and as much as Jayler hated to admit it, that idea upset him quite a bit. He had been looking forward to seeing her again for so long, and then she wound up walking away just as she had back when they were first getting acquainted with one another. 

Jayler's emotions towards her actions were starting to grow more complex, and he glanced up to the ceiling as he sat down on his bed once again. He wanted to get to know her, and it was this part of himself that was strangely bitter at her for leaving. Still, the logical part of Jayler's mind knew that she would have stayed if that had been an option. Of course she wanted to get to know him the same way that he was yearning to reach out to her. That was a logical conclusion to make, and Jayler found the idea of her wanting to keep him away to be rather ridiculous. 

He understood that she had other things to take care of. After all, they were both separate people with their own desires and priorities, and Jayler certainly couldn't fault her for wanting to express her ambitions. Still, he longed to pull her in closer and get to know the sister that he had been waiting for in the time since his previous excursion to Hyperion. 

Jayler didn't know how he was supposed to explain all of this to his friends. They were undoubtedly going to be curious when Jayler showed signs of being jittery and nervous, and he was going to have to say that he had crossed paths with the Silver Knight. He knew that the Clan Leaders had always been supportive of his endeavors to get to know her, but part of him was still anxious about saying that she had left once again. Perhaps he was trying to protect her reputation no matter how upset he was that she was gone once more. 

He forced himself to his feet and started to get ready for the day. He wouldn't be able to accomplish anything if he was just sitting around and waiting for something to happen. The Silver Knight would return when she was ready. Jayler simply had to have faith that she would be back, and he was positive that she would return to his life at one point. He just wished that it would be sooner rather than later even though he knew that he had no influence over what she did or did not do. 

It was back to the agonizing period of waiting, and Jayler couldn't help but wish that it was over already. 

~~~~~

Jay slid out of bed as soon as she was able to remind herself that there was something out there for her to do. For a while, she remained stubbornly curled up beneath the covers of her bed at the inn, trying her best to block out the light streaming in through the curtains. She could hear the rustling of nearby activity, and she assumed by default that it was Lana responsible for the scuffling. 

Jay finally decided that it was time for her to stop pretending to still be asleep. She wasn't fooling herself, and chances were high that she wasn't fooling Lana either. The mercenary sighed to herself before rising to her feet, her lips set in the default of a frown. She hadn't slept well the night before at all. Her thoughts kept on straying back to everything that was happening with the palace that the Skylox Heroes had previously occupied. She had tossed and turned for ages before finally settling into a restless slumber that somehow left her feeling even more physically exhausted than she had been when she first heard about the expedition that the Draconic Superiors were leading. 

"Did you sleep well?"

Lana was on the other side of the room, sitting on a small chair as she flicked through the projection of an information program. She appeared to have resumed her research on the remaining Skylian Mages in the time since she had woken up. Lana didn't glance up from her task at first, but when she did, there was a gentle smile on her face. If Jay didn't know better, she never would have guessed that Lana had attempted to grill her into honesty the night before. 

The most annoying part was the fact that she knew that Lana had a point. She didn't want to talk about what had happened before she and Arian met, but she knew that the truth was going to find its way out sooner or later. She was going to slip up, and when she did, everyone was going to see everything that she had been hiding for so long. She had been keeping up the mask for quite some time, yes, but Jay hadn't ever been forced to hide so much for so long. It was jarring given how open she had once been. 

"Yeah," Jay lied. The act of dishonesty came effortlessly as she started to prepare for the continuation of their search for the other Skylian Mages. Luckily for her, Lana chose to not say anything else after posing her initial question, so the two girls fell into silence as they continued to go about their separate but equally important tasks. 

Jay couldn't stop thinking about how much times had changed in such a short span of events. At one point in time, she never would have recognized her own reflection in the mirror. She still looked the same as she always had been, but there was something different when the details were scrutinized enough. The flow of time, ever her enemy, had shoved Jay into a box that she hadn't ever wanted to become. It wasn't as if she had been given much of a choice, but it was upsetting regardless. 

Before she had met up with Arian, she had been alone for a long time, too afraid to do anything that would close the distance between herself and those who existed around her. Jay almost felt as if she lived inside a glass container, going about her daily business as others around her did the same. There was never much of any interaction between the two groups, and Jay had been fine with that. After all, interaction could easily lead to questions, and Jay absolutely hated it when people asked her questions about who she was and where she had come form. 

Before that, Jay had been completely different. She never would have imagined being so dishonest to those around her, instead taking an approach that involved a wide smile and consistent sincerity. She had been raised believing that people were good, and since she had no reason to believe otherwise, she never bothered to challenge the belief. Jay had encountered bad people before, yes, but she never got the chance to truly see the darkness. She lived with those who held their demons close and never spoke of them, leaving a wide distance between the two categories of good and bad. To the younger iteration of Jay, there were good people, and there were bad people. There was never an overlap, and she had no reason to question it. 

Time brought with it change though, and Jay had evolved since those days. She knew better than to take everything at face value the way that she once had, so she instead watched others from afar, always holding them at an arm's length. Getting close to others invited emotion, and feeling too much had always been a weakness of hers. Jay wanted to help as many people as she possibly could, so she put herself out there with her heart on her sleeve, unaware of what could happen if she exposed too much. In her world, there was no true evil, so why would she bother to hold back?

Jay shook the thought free of her mind. She couldn't be focused on the past anymore. After all, she had adapted to fit the world that had slipped around her. The universe had changed, and she had done the same as a way of compensating for the way that she was thrust into something new and far more dangerous in the blink of an eye. Jay no longer had the beauty of naivete to guide her through life, so she wasn't going to allow it to push her onwards. She had become her own person, though it was debatable as to if this was a good thing or not. Perhaps independence was her greatest weakness as well as her most incredible strength. 

The door to the other room where Ronan and Arian were staying opened, and Arian walked through with a wide smile on his face. His ponytail had been done perfectly, and Jay wondered briefly if Ronan had been the one to construct it. Arian never seemed to put so much effort into his appearance, but Ronan was clearly a different story. 

Regardless, she supposed that it wasn't all that important, so Jay simply watched as Ronan and Arian approached her. "It's time for us to go out and see what the world has for us!" Arian exclaimed. He was stretching his arms out in front of his torso before he let them flop back down to his sides. "We could go back to the tavern and see if we can get new information out of Jubilee. The way that she was talking last night made it seem as if she was a Hanilia."

"I still wonder why she wouldn't just go on and be open about her identity if she is a Hanilia," Ronan remarked with a frown. "She knows it, so you would expect her to say from the very beginning that she was a member of the group. I didn't know about it until recently, but if I had grown up knowing that I was a Hanilia, I would have told everybody about it. Well, maybe not everybody, but I would have certainly mentioned it to the others who I thought were on my team. Other Hanilia would be nice to mention it to also."

"I'm sure that she has her reasons," Jay said, but she had to admit that she was curious about that as well. "She's learned how to gather information rather well... You would never expect someone so young in appearance to know all of this..." As soon as she said it, Jay seemed to realize the implications of her words, and her eyes shot open. 

A wide grin appeared on Lana's face, and she nodded. "As a matter of fact, I was thinking the same thing. I think that Jubilee might just be one of the people that we've been searching for all this time," she explained. "I don't have any evidence for this one yet, but I decided to do a bit more research into the guard that was created to help out with the important prison that we learned about when we were first starting to dig more into the Skylian Mages."

"She certainly seemed to have a bit of muscle on her... And that would make it seem as if she was experienced with something like that," Arian murmured, nodding to himself. He walked over to the space beside Lana before gesturing that Ronan and Jay join them. "What do you have for us?"

Jay and Ronan followed up on Arian's gesture, leaving the group all huddled around the projection that Lana had summoned. The Air mage began to press down on a few segments of the hologram before an article came up. Jay cringed at the text as soon as she saw it. The phrasing made it clear as could be that the piece had been written quite some time ago. Jay was experienced with reading, yes, but she couldn't ever say that she was good with comprehending ancient texts. The superfluous language had always been difficult for her to understand, and this article was far from being an exception. Just looking at the first sentence made Jay feel as if her head had started to spin. 

"The prison was constructed for another planet, and the super soldier in question worked there for a long time before departing about sixty years ago. It appears as if they got sick of the work and decided that they wanted to do something else. The prison wound up falling apart after they left, making it seem as if the incredible soldier was the reason that it had been successful in the first place," Lana explained. "Sixty years after leaving the prison would give someone more than enough time to gain experience with gathering information. Besides, I feel like learning more about potential crimes would come with the original territory."

"And with how muscular she is, it wouldn't be surprising if Jubilee was involved with that somehow," Arian concluded. "It seems to me like we have to go back to her and see if she's aware of anything. I mean, if we bring this up, it should be enough to at least get her to show signs of being nervous. We can figure out our next step from there."

Nobody objected to Arian's suggestion, and the group started to move back towards the tavern once again. Jay trailed behind them from the back, still struggling to pull herself fully into the world of the waking. She longed to return to the comforts of the past, but she knew that this wasn't an option. The world was waiting for her, and she couldn't procrastinate on her duties for too long. The past was out of reach, so she was simply going to have to find a future that she could enjoy. 

She just wished that future didn't come with telling the truth about what she had been through, but she knew that such a wish would never come true. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updates are neat
> 
> -Digital


	22. Chapter Twenty-One: Mistress of Flames

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party speaks with Jubilee once again.

By the time that the group had arrived at the tavern once again, the building had mostly emptied out. The night before had been chaotic and noisy, but the morning was far less overwhelming. In fact, there were only a few people scattered about, and none of them were from the same crowd that Jay had witnessed the night before. The few people that were there appeared to be far less noteworthy than she had expected, and there were even a few young mages who wouldn't be able to drink even if they wanted to. She assumed that the tavern allowed for minors to enter the building before it got to be too late at night, and she could understand why the youths in question had come by. It was a nice place to spend time, and the atmosphere was notably enjoyable without the constant shuffling and shouting of drunken fools from the night prior. 

Jubilee was already behind the counter, and Jay couldn't help but wonder if she ever left. Jubilee was playing around on her phone, seeming to recognize that it was a slow enough day that nobody would care if she slacked off a bit. As soon as Jubilee heard the scrape of chairs in front of her, she looked up and shoved her phone back into her pocket. The four mages all found seats in front of Jubilee, and the bartender leaned forward with her forearms braced against the granite below. "I didn't expect to see you four back so soon," she remarked. Her statement was not rooted in malice, instead being a simple expression of fact and curiosity. 

"We're actually here because we want to talk to you," Arian began, his eyes glittering with confidence. "You see, we were wondering if perhaps you would know anything about a specific prison that was established a great many years ago. We have reason to believe that the immortal guard who once looked over this incredible place has been through this area recently, and we think that they could possibly be related to our current mission."

Jubilee didn't seem bothered by Arian's question at all, and her natural ease for conversation was able to keep her from showing her blatant shock. Instead, she simply let out a small chuckle and tilted her head lightly to the side as she rose back to her full height. "I have to wonder... Where did you come to a conclusion like that?" she asked. 

"You're clearly rather muscular," Lana began, not bothering to beat around the bush. "I believe that you possess Fire magic, and I think that certainly fits the bill of the person that we're looking for. Besides, you were pretty confident last night that we were coming here to speak with somebody like you. As a matter of fact, you mentioned that people like us had to stick together, and if that's not evidence of your involvement with all of this, then I don't know what is. You said it, and that's got to be enough for you to recognize that we know what we're talking about."

For a long moment, Jubilee didn't say or do anything. When she finally did move, she hooked her fingers around the top of the apron she was wearing and gestured for everyone to follow her behind the counter. Jay hesitated at first before pushing through the small barrier that blocked off the servers' area from the rest of the tavern. Jubilee began walking back towards a door that could barely be seen between the large cabinets and containers of alcohol and other beverages. She opened the door and gestured for the others to walk in ahead of her, and they did so without giving her so much as a second glance. 

The unspoken consensus was that Jubilee was finally going to share the truth about what she had been hiding from them. That was what Jay was hoping for, at the very least. She had no reason to disbelieve Jubilee's words, and she was starting to think that the other girl was somehow involved with their mission. Perhaps she was one of the remaining Skylian Mages that they had been searching for. Given the way that Lana was so confident in her decisions, Jay was fairly certain that they had struck gold by chance. 

Jubilee allowed the apron to slide free of her fingers and onto a nearby hook. Jay realized that the bartender had led them into a wine cellar, and the room was as boxed in and cramped as possible. Jay had to pretend that she wasn't bothered by the cramped quarters to keep from losing her nerve, so she allowed her grip to tighten around the hilt of her sword. It gave her something to focus on even if there was no battle on the horizon. 

"I think that we have quite a bit to discuss," Jubilee remarked, a light smirk playing at her lips as she shut the door behind herself. "If you want the truth, there's quite a bit to go through here... Still, I suppose that I shouldn't bother hiding too much. You're lucky that I know who you are. I don't want to cause any unnecessary problems for you given that we're meant to be working together. That would be rather counterintuitive to our shared goals, yes?"

Jubilee didn't wait for anyone to respond to her prompt. Instead, she pulled her shoulders back, and Jay was able to see just how massive Jubilee was. The woman was tall, and her auburn hair was long enough that it almost made her seem larger than she truly was. Her muscles were incredible, and everything about Jubilee screamed that she was not a woman to be trifled with. Jay could see Ronan's eyes go wide with awe out of the corner of her vision, and she found that she couldn't blame him in the slightest for being impressed with the sheer strength that Jubilee had at her disposal. 

"My name is Jubilee, and I'm a Skylian Mage," Jubilee continued a moment later. "I know who all of you are too. Jay, Arian, Lana, Ronan... You don't need to introduce yourselves. I have ways of finding things out aside from simply waiting for people to talk about them around here. It's rather easy to gather information if you know where to look. Of course, I believe that you all know who you are, so I won't go into that sort of thing. Instead, I think that we have far more important business to cover."

Jubilee cleared her throat before she went on, making it clear that she wasn't going to tolerate interruptions. "I did work as a guard at the prison that you mentioned before. It's been quite some time since the place was first constructed, and I would say that times have changed considerably since then. I've gone through a few jobs since I decided to stop working there, and that's how I eventually wound up here," she declared. 

"What happened?" Arian questioned when he realized that Jubilee was giving him a chance to offer inquiries. "I mean, it sounds like that sort of work would have been great if you were looking for money. You were literally built for something like that, so it would only make sense that you knew what to do and how to stay around there for ages..."

"I got bored," Jubilee replied with a light shrug. "What can I say? I'm a bit of an adventurous spirit." Her gaze hardened, and Jay could tell that there was more to it, something that Jubilee confirmed when she continued soon afterwards. "The truth is... I was tired of being treated like nothing more than an item. My job was to look after the worst criminals that the Galaxy of Hyperion had ever seen, but everyone relied on me too much. After all, the only reason behind my existence was to look over those who had hurt others to extreme degrees. That's not a way to live. I wanted to see the rest of the world, and after I left that place behind, I realized just how poorly I was being treated. The people who brought me into existence underestimated me by assuming that I wouldn't realize what was going on."

"I understand," Ronan said softly. He didn't continue beyond that, but Jay didn't think that he particularly needed to. In a way, his experiences were similar to what Jubilee had been through. He had been treated as nothing more than an object after the truth of his powers came out. Ronan himself had been completely unaware of the secrets resting beneath the surface, and the only person who knew used that to manipulate him without Ronan even realizing. It was awful, but he didn't notice that such was the case until after he had been given a taste of freedom thanks to his comrades. It was odd to think of someone as confident and blunt as Jubilee being similar to the soft and delicate Ronan, but Jay still felt as if the connection made a lot of sense. 

"I wasn't going to return to something like that, so I just decided not to. The prison began to fall apart as soon as they realized that I wasn't coming back. The Fearbringers have been making stupid choices for a while now. Their recent decisions aren't all that we should be looking at when it comes to their general actions of ridiculousness," Jubilee snorted. "All of the prisoners at the facility were transferred elsewhere, and I never bothered to look back. They created me for the sake of defending others while not giving me a way of understanding the world that I was trying to keep safe. Kind of sad, eh?"

"Thank you for trusting us enough to say all of this," Arian told Jubilee with a light smile. It was clear that he was trying his best to remain positive in the face of Jubilee's sad, albeit sincerely honest, tale. "We're not going to let any of that happen to you again, but... What does this mean for the present? Are you going to come with us even after your awful experiences with being a Hanilia from before?"

"I don't see a reason why I wouldn't want to join you," Jubilee shrugged. "I mean, I get the feeling that your'e different from the people who I hated from before. If you were going to come here for the sake of mistreating me, I already would have picked up on it. Like I said before, I know how to gather information, and I believe firmly that you're not here to pull anything like that. If you try it, I won't hold back, but I somehow doubt that's going to be an issue. After all, as far as I can tell, you all understand what this sort of thing is about."

"Being a Skylian Mage is a different experience from being a Fearbringer," Lana agreed. "There have only been a small handful of us throughout all of Hyperion's history because we're meant to be immortals. Unless something gets in the way of our eternal life, we aren't going to be dying anytime soon. Fearbringers are reincarnated and come back after the fighter of a given element passes on. The different Hanilia factions are all unique in their own ways, and this is a burden that Skylian Mages bear alone. All mages have increased lifespans compared to regular humans, but this is an issue that we're experienced with against all others."

"Yeah," Jubilee murmured before she snapped her gaze back into focus. "I know that something has been going wrong as of late, though I can't say that I know exactly how south everything has been traveling. I somehow doubt that you're aware of what's going on right now either. If there was information to procure, I would have already pulled it together, but I'm just as clueless as the rest of you. Sorry about that." 

Her tone was far from being sincere, so Jay assumed that the apology was merely formality than actually being honest. Still, she didn't mind much. "It's fine," Jay told her without a beat of hesitation. "You have to come with us now. Having you on our side is going to make our search for the current issue on Skylia far easier to finish. We can use all of the help that we can possibly get, and I can tell that you're a capable fighter. The Skylian Mages could use all of the assistance that you have to offer us."

"I know," Jubilee assured her. "And I'm going to be coming with you. I've been living in this little town here for a long time, and I think it's time for a change of scenery. I'll come back again one day, but for the time being, it's time to step out and see the rest of the world." A smirk played at her lips, and she shrugged to herself. "Who knows? Maybe I'll be able to gather more information on other Hanilia when we next come back here."

"Speaking of other Hanilia, would you happen to know anything about the other members of the Skylian Mages?" Arian questioned. He didn't say it, but it was clear as could be that he was truly aiming the question at the subject of the Colt character that Jubilee had mentioned the day before. 

Jubilee paused for a long time, and Jay got the feeling that learning more about the Colt person in question would be easier said than done. "You could say that," Jubilee eventually responded. "It's a bit of a complicated situation, I'm afraid. I think that I've met the Skylian Mage of Water. His name is Colt Curre, but getting to him isn't going to be easy. You see, he happens to work for a large company that specializes in a variety of subjects. Nobody can touch it because of how much influence they have across nearly every market that you can imagine."

"That certainly lines up with the rumors that I've heard," Lana admitted under her breath. "Maybe we'll be able to sway him to leave after we show that we have you on our side. It sounds to me like you're acquainted with him at the very least, and that might be enough to get him away from the group that he's currently working with."

"That's not exactly my concern here. I'm thinking more about how I don't think the company is going to let him go," Jubilee told Lana, her lips slipping into a deep frown. "I believe that the group is going to be fiercely protective of him. When I first met the man, I could tell that he was longing for something else. He's stoic, but that doesn't mean that he specifically wants to be. The company is keeping him where he is without allowing him the chance to leave. He's not with us yet because he hasn't had the chance to escape from the group that has him under their thumb."

"It's blackmail," Jay concluded softly with a shake of her head. "The company was likely responsible for his creation, so that leads the people who run the show to believe that he's obligated to work for them regardless of his own personal reservations. If a group like that truly holds as much power as you're making it sound like, then that would make things complicated where escape was concerned. I can see why Colt hasn't been able to get out of there yet if that's the case."

"It's just a theory of mine. I don't have any solid evidence for any of what I'm saying, but I think that it would all explain a lot," Jubilee told her with another loose yet jerky shrug. "We'll figure more out about it after we track him down. I feel like we'll be able to make a lot more progress working together. I'm going to get out of here as soon as I can, though that hopefully shouldn't be too big of an issue. We should try to find Colt and make sure that he's not getting into any trouble without us. It wouldn't surprise me if he wound up being that sort of person, though I guess that would be a touch rude to say."

Jay couldn't help but snort at Jubilee's blatant honesty, and she nodded her understanding. "I guess that we've got our road map for what to do next, and that's a great first step in my eyes," she declared before taking in a deep breath and releasing it a moment later. "We have to figure out where Colt could possibly be found, and it hopefully won't be too difficult to do as long as we're all working together."

"I'll start looking into it as soon as possible," Lana announced. "But before we go on with that... I have to ask you, Jubilee... I believe that we already know the truth behind this, but I want to confirm it before we go any further. You have the magical subcategories of Fire, right? You have the five types of Red Magic, correct?"

Jubilee nodded. "Yeah, I do. I think that you have a few of the other Skylian Mages in your party already too. I could sense an almost frosty sensation from Colt when I spoke to him before, so I'm pretty sure that he's got Water and all of its little categories," she told Lana. "It wouldn't surprise me if that was the case, at the very least. We're going to have to ask him for sure when we see him, but who knows when that will be? Even if we're thinking optimistically, it could take a bit more time than we were anticipating to find him."

"If the company that he's working with found out that he came by this area, then they could try to pull him back into their influence again," Arian commented. "It wouldn't surprise me, at the very least. If they're as controlling as you've been led to believe, then we're going to have to keep it in mind as we move towards the next part of our plan."

Jubilee sighed and shook her head with frustration festering in her gaze. "I feel bad for the kid, if I'm being honest. I don't think that anyone should have to put up with something that restrictive. I mean, I feel like I made my thoughts on such actions pretty damn clear when I left behind my old job because I wasn't being given the chance to live on my own. I didn't exist solely for the purpose of filling out a given job, and the same applies to Colt. To base someone's entire existence around one key factor like that... Yeah, it's not something I like. Even if we're Hanilia, there's more to us than simply being Hanilia. We're different people, and I wish that people would get that," she muttered. Her voice had taken on an oddly heavy quality, and Jay could tell that Jubilee was venting far more than she was caring to admit. 

"We should head out of here now," Ronan suggested after a brief moment of silence. He gestured for the group to trail after him as he moved to the door, and they did so without hesitation. Jay allowed herself to follow the other members of the group away from the tavern where Jubilee had spent so many years of her life, and they were out on the street in the blink of an eye. 

"What are you going to do about work?" Arian questioned as the group started moving back towards the nearby hotel. "I mean, I'm pretty sure that you need to put in a bit of advance notice before you can be done with a job like this... What if they need somebody to cover your shifts or something?"

"I had a feeling something like this was going to happen sooner or later," Jubilee told him. "I guessed that I had a gut sensation that there was going to be some kind of change in my life. I decided to listen to my intuition, and I'm glad that I did. I learned to trust my instincts a long time ago when I was working as a prison guard, and it's a skill that I haven't given up even after I left the job."

"I'm glad that you decided to hold to that sort of thing," Ronan laughed, raising his hand to cover his smile. "I think that it would mess with our progress if you had to spend some extra time waiting before you could join our group. Who would have guessed that everything would work out so perfectly?"

"Certainly not me," Jubilee remarked. She shrugged as the party entered the lobby of the hotel, and they shuffled into the elevator soon afterwards. "I can tell you what I know about another important subject while we're here. I sort of mentioned it last night, but since you're Hanilia like me... Well, I suppose that I have no reason to hold back."

"If you knew that we were like you, why didn't you tell us about it from the start?" Lana questioned. "I'm not mad or anything, but I'm definitely curious about what could have motivated you to be so secretive in the beginning."

Jubilee hesitated, and Lana's expression shifted into a wince as she grew to fear that she had struck a nerve. "Well... I never really got the chance to know many other Hanilia. The only ones that I've interacted with are Fearbringers, and it's not as if my relationship with them was particularly positive. It was a Fearbringer leader from generations ago that created me in the first place, and nearly every Fearbringer in their group and the teams that followed treated me like I existed only to serve their goals. I don't really trust other Hanilia that much, but... When I figured out that you were Skylian Mages, then it was easy for me to open up," she explained. 

"I understand... You didn't want to open up to us because you didn't know if we were going to mesh well with you," Ronan murmured. "How did you realize that you were Skylian Mages anyways?"

"I've figured out how to tell somebody's magic by spending enough time with them. It was important back when I was a prison guard, so I decided to hone that skill when I was in the service of the Fearbringers. After I left, I decided to keep it around in case I needed that kind of information in the future. I could sense five elements coming from some of you, and they were all in the same category of magic. It was easy to put the pieces together from there, especially given that I was able to use the same methods to figure out that I was a Skylian Mage years ago," Jubilee replied. 

Jay felt her shoulders grow tense. She nodded her understanding and rested her hand against the surface of her sword's hilt. Having it within reach that way always made her feel better even when she was far from being in a truly dangerous situation. She knew that she was safe with the rest of the Skylian Mages, but that didn't stop her from feeling unsettled and anxious at Jubilee's explanation. 

The elevator slid to a stop, and Lana led the group back to the room that she was sharing with Jay. Arian and Ronan were all too happy to follow her lead, and Jubilee took up the rear of the group. Jay was glad that the room was rather spacious since it gave them more than enough room to all have their own personal bubbles without stepping on one another's toes. Jay decided to take up a position in the corner of the room, her arms hugged tightly against her chest as she resisted the urge to start messing with her sword again. She was feeling anxious again, but she knew that while the room was rather large, there wasn't enough room for her to comfortably swing her blade about. She would simply have to grin and bear it for a while longer. 

"What is it that you wanted to tell us about in the first place?" Ronan questioned as he sat down on Jay's bed. Arian took a seat beside him while Lana sat on her own mattress. Jubilee opted to stand, though she was a bit closer to the rest of the group than Jay was. Nobody seemed to question Jay on her sudden distance from the team, seeming to understand that it was simply a matter of personal preference. 

"Ah, that's right," Jubilee murmured. "I was going to tell you what I know about the Hanilia castle that the Draconic Superiors and Clan Leaders are setting up. I've heard a small amount of information on that, and I figured that it would be a good place to start."

Jay's shoulders went tense. If anyone noticed, they chose not to comment on it. Jubilee continued instead of giving Jay a second glance. "The Draconic Superiors and Clan Leaders have been creating a hub area of sorts for all the Hanilia of the current generation. I guess that they've caught onto the fact that something has been wrong as of the past few years. I don't know how to describe it in full, but I think that there's something tense in the air. I know that's a strange way to say it, but... I think that something is wrong."

"Something did go wrong in the past few years," Lana commented. "There was the war between the Fearbringers and the occupants of Daragon, and it turned out that one of the ancient Lakinya was responsible for the fight. Most people were convinced that the Hanilia had vanquished the Lakinya alongside Hyperion herself in the initial war against Loki, but... That didn't turn out to be true. I have to admit that I also thought that the Lakinya had died many years ago, so hearing the truth about Mersall was a bit of a shock to my system."

"I didn't know about it either. I didn't realize that there was anything going on with the Fearbringers in the first place, but look at how everything turned out... Well, I knew that something was up with the Fearbringers, but I never expected it to be this. I was positive that it was simply a matter of strange behavior in the group as a whole as opposed to being caused by one specific person. Even if I had assumed there was a particular party responsible, I wouldn't have thought it was a Lakinya. Would any of us have a reason to think that it was a Lakinya?" Jubilee questioned. "The answer to that is a firm 'no' before any of you say anything about it. Mersall must have been behind this weird feeling of mine."

"The Lakinya have survived in secret for many years before now, but they didn't start to fully reach their previous levels of power until recently," Jay murmured. "That would certainly explain why you started to feel that something was wrong... Mersall can't be the only one responsible for all of the recent issues in the Galaxy of Hyperion. He's the only one who's stepped forward, but there have to be others. If he survived, there's a strong chance that there are others in the group who also managed to press on alone for the past few centuries."

"It's unfortunate, but that appears to be the case," Jubilee shrugged. "If you ask me, Tuila has to at least be vaguely aware of all this. Tuila is too smart for her own good, so if something was happening in the Galaxy of Hyperion, she would know about it before most others. She has strong instincts as well, and even if she hasn't said anything about it, her reasoning for moving into the castle makes all too much sense if you consider that as an explanation. She knows what she's doing given how long she's been alive, and we can't question her judgement here."

"Do you think that we should meet up with the other Hanilia in the castle?" Arian questioned. "For all we know, they would be able to help us get Colt out of his difficult situation. We're going to need his help, and maybe we'll wind up needing backup in order to free him from the sticky spot he's in."

"That would alert more people as to our plans, and the fewer people who know, the better it is for all of us," Jubilee replied. "We can't afford for information like this to get out, so we're going to have to take care of it on our own. Once we're all back together, then we can figure out how we're going to meet up with the other Hanilia. We're going to have to see them sooner or later, but we should operate on our own for the time being."

"I'll start looking into the matter now," Lana announced, and she immediately reached into her pocket and pulled out the small spherical device that she carried everywhere. A hologram appeared soon afterwards, and Lana began to press down on it without hesitation, clearly slipping into her natural environment without the need of any encouragement. 

The conversation faded out from there, and Jay couldn't help but sigh in silent relief that they weren't going to meet up with the rest of the Hanilia quite yet. She would have been happy to not go there for another few years, in all honesty. She glanced down to her sword once again and began to squeeze at the hilt absentmindedly. She could tell that Jubilee was going to be yet another obstacle in her secrecy the way that Lana was, but there wasn't anything she could do about it. 

After all, the truth was going to come out sooner or later. It was just a matter of time. Jay couldn't outrun the clock forever. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fire Emblem is mean to me sigh
> 
> -Digital


	23. Chapter Twenty-Two: Otholle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group begins to investigate Colt in earnest.

Matching a name and an image to the company that was bothering Colt wasn't anywhere near as hard as Jay had initially assumed it was going to be. She found herself in the hotel room next to the tavern alongside her other companions as Lana continued toying with her holographic interface, and Jay watched from afar with hopes that Lana would be able to uncover something. 

It only took a few minutes for Lana to finally zero in on something. The Air mage cleared her throat before she started to explain to the group at large all that she had found. "As far as I can tell, the group here that we're looking into is the Otholle Corporation," Lana began to say. "That appears to be the most likely suspect, at the very least. It's a large group that's been trying to expand their reach into other fields for quite some time now."

"That's putting it simply," Jubilee snorted affectionately. "As far as I can tell, they've already got influence in all sorts of fields. They're stretching out beyond their previous limits, but that doesn't mean that their influence was minimal in the first place. In fact, I would most certainly argue that this has been a problem for far longer than any of us have been aware of."

Jay cringed at Jubilee's words and closed her eyes to think over what they had learned. She had heard of Otholle before, though she hadn't delved deep into what they were involved with in quite some time. She knew that the company had been established ages ago, back before she had been born, and their influence stretched far and wide. Some even said that the company had a stake in politics, though there was little evidence to back this up. Jay was positive that there were more than a few shady secrets hiding beneath the behemoth of the company's reputation, and she turned to Jubilee prematurely with hopes that the other girl would be able to clarify at least a little bit of what she knew. 

Jubilee seemed to recognize that Jay was staring without even looking in her direction. "I can say that I've heard quite a bit about their business practices. The owner of the company lives in excess, but nobody is quite sure who it is. That's a secret that Otholle has kept for a long time in the name of trying to ensure that no trouble arrives on their doorstep... At the very least, that's the excuse they use when people get curious about everything that they're hiding," Jubilee explained. "If you ask me, there has to be something else going on there that they're simply refusing to talk about. I don't trust giant groups like that. There's a reason that I prefer to go solo when there's a choice of being with or against the rest of the world."

"I've heard something similar," Arian interjected. "I don't think that I know anywhere near as much on the subject as you do, but... I think that there's definitely something wrong here. Pardon me if I'm jumping to conclusions too quickly, but I'm positive that the person leading the company is up to something. They simply have to be. Why else would they make sure that Colt wasn't able to leave?"

"That's not a new trend as far as I can tell," Lana frowned. She pointed to a particular point on her hologram, and Ronan leaned over her shoulder to see it in more detail. "There are all sorts of employees who have been trying to speak out about their experiences with the company, but they were forced into silence before they could tell anybody what happened while they were there. Rumors have been circulating for quite a while now saying that the company underpays its employees despite the large sums of money that come in through its various assets each year."

"They want to keep everyone quiet then," Jay whispered. It didn't particularly surprise her, but she didn't want to openly say that given that it was what they were all thinking. "We have to figure out a way to get him out of there then. If Colt is really a Skylian Mage like we think, then that's the next natural step. We don't have any other leads, and if he really deals in information like we think he does, then he's going to be our key to figuring out what to do next."

"Coming up with a plan is going to be the hard part here, I'm afraid," Lana told her with a shake of her head. "Otholle keeps everything under tight wraps to ensure that no information gets out that shouldn't already be in the public's collective consciousness. I wish that I could tell you more than what I already have, but I'm afraid that I don't know much about them either. Jubilee, have you heard anything?"

Jubilee hesitated before shrugging. "It's difficult to say if anything I say will be helpful. All I've heard is that despite their pristine public image, they're far less pretty behind closed doors. Then again, it certainly doesn't take a genius to see that given what we've already heard about today. We're just going to have to stay on our toes and make sure that we're one step ahead at all times. It's not exactly great advice, but it's all that we can really do at the moment," she explained. 

"If there are really problems between the employees and supervisors at the company, then maybe we could try to turn the tides and shift things into our favor," Ronan suggested. He paused to think it over before he shook his head. "Then again, I suppose that would take a long time to organize, and we don't really have much time to spare given the situation..."

"We've come so far in trying to figure out everything that's going on with the Skylian Mages, but it feels like we're still clueless as to what Lyloc even wanted them to get together for," Jay muttered. "She seems to think that the Skylian Mages are going to be crucial in order to stop something bad from happening, but we don't know any details beyond that. If our foe is a Lakinya, then that's one thing, but... We're going to need a bit more than that if we're going to keep this planet from slipping into catastrophe, you know?"

"Skylia not having a central government isn't exactly helpful either. There are people who look over specific towns and cities throughout the planet, but the closest thing that this place had to a central government was the Skylox Heroes. With them gone, we don't really have anywhere to go with the information that we've gathered," Lana remarked. "Maybe Otholle will know something about all of this, but I somehow doubt that anybody from the company is just going to tell us what we want to hear. There's no way it'll be that easy."

"I haven't figured out anything beyond what I've already mentioned. If I had heard something by now, I would have either thought to search for the other Hanilia in the group or mentioned it to you guys. I haven't heard anything through collecting information in less legal circles, and Lana is clueless by collecting information in ethical circles. Seems to me like we're going to have to hope to every higher power out there that Colt has something for us to use. If he doesn't have anything, then we're going back to square one, just this time with more players," Jubilee sighed. 

"I suppose there's nothing we can do now but get down to the investigation," Arian announced. He stretched his arms above his head and let out a sigh. "I'm not exactly looking forward to all the ways that this could go wrong, but we don't really have much of a choice in the matter. Let's go on and see what we can accomplish for the time being."

There were no objections to his words, and the party slowly began to file away from the room. They weren't exactly sure of where to start or where they would have to go from there, but it was something, and that was all they could really ask for at the moment. Jay could feel the tension hanging heavily in the air, but she chose not to comment on it, instead biting her tongue and watching as she placed one foot in front of the other. 

Colt being a member of the group would certainly fit in with the information that they had gathered quite some time ago. However, that left one rumor that matched up with a Fire mage and a lack of a fighter in the Mystic element and its subgroups. There were five Skylian Mages if one was going off the number of elemental subcategories, and they had already gathered three. Colt would make for a fourth, but the final one was still a mystery. 

Jay resisted the urge to stare at Lana out of the corner of her eye, knowing that it wasn't going to accomplish anything. Instead, she let out a small breath through her nose to try and ground herself as she attempted to focus on the mission at hand. She would have all the time in the world to focus on the final rumor after they had found Colt. For all she knew, he would wind up having the information that they needed, and her curiosity would all be for naught. Jay was hoping for that outcome, but she wasn't going to hold her breath in case it didn't wind up coming to fruition. 

The future for all of them was uncertain, and Jay wasn't sure that she would be able to change such until after the Skylian Mages were together. For the time being, finding Colt had to be her priority. Everything else could wait until after this had been taken care of. It was this sense of duty and responsibility that kept Jay from getting too lost in her thoughts of Lyloc as she wondered what all of this was even meant to be for. 

Cryai's words had made it pretty damn clear that there was a Lakinya involved with all that had taken place. Jay was positive that the Lakinya in question had been tied in with the attack that had happened in the ruins of Nadia as well. Lyloc's words still rang in her ears, and she wanted nothing more than to listen to Lyloc speak once again, but this time, perhaps the spirit would offer more advice beyond simply offering a task and disappearing back into the shadows. 

Jay wasn't surprised by Lyloc's strange ways at all, but that didn't mean that she wasn't frustrated. Still, she forced herself to shove her upset aside, knowing that there were far more important subjects at hand. She could afford to be curious about what made Lyloc so peculiar another time, but finding Colt mattered most. 

Jay gave one final glance at Lana out of the corner of her eye before they left the hotel in full. She was going to try and ask Lana about all that had taken place once again after Colt had been retrieved from the grasps of Otholle. It wasn't as if she expected Lana to open up easily, but what other choice did she have? Lana had made her stance clear, but there weren't any other easy methods to finding out the truth about the Skylian Mages. 

Once again, Jay's eyes followed the rhythmic pattern of her feet being placed one in front of the other. It was oddly hypnotic, allowing the rest of her thoughts to drift away into the corners of her mind where she hopefully wouldn't have to put up with them for quite some time. There were no promises, but even a temporary belief in reprieve was more than enough for her. She could deal with all of this later. For just a moment, she needed a break, and finding Colt appeared to be just the distraction that she needed. 

~~~~~

At one point in time, Colt had actually liked his job. 

It was something that not even Colt himself could believe given how far he had fallen from the graceful times of his glory days. He had changed since he was first employed by the higher-ups of Otholle, and he had come to absolutely hate everything that he had to do in order to earn his keep on a daily basis. Just thinking about his work was more than enough to elicit a roll of his eyes, and that was the best outcome. At worst, he muttered a few vulgar phrases under his breath while threatening to kick a rock straight into the sun. 

Colt had been sent out on yet another mission to gather information. There weren't even any details on the subjects that he was meant to be investigating. Then again, was he really meant to expect a better briefing than simply to 'get it done'? He hadn't received more than that in quite a while, and that was only one facet of his many frustrations with his work. It was the one that he could describe the easiest, but it was still only a fragment of why he detested the job that he had been given with such incredible passion. 

Colt had been hearing whispers for quite some time that there was something new taking place on Skylia. He heard his supervisors, elaborate people who wore far too much jewelry for their fragile bodies, whispering amongst themselves that there was a group of Hanilia moving together once again. It was more than simply the organization effort being led by the Draconic Superiors as far as Colt could tell, but nobody ever seemed to be willing to tell him anything about it beyond the fact that something was happening. 

Perhaps it was this sense of curiosity that had drawn him to Jubilee in the first place. Under most circumstances, Colt was meant to gather information with as little help from others as possible to keep from making people suspicious. It was a rule that he had grown used to a long time ago regardless of how much he hated it. Still, Jubilee was known by many people to be an expert when it came to gathering information that no others would be able to get their hands on otherwise. She was a smart person who knew how to use her wits to her advantage, and that was too much for Colt to pass up on. 

He didn't know what he expected, if he was being perfectly honest. Colt just wanted to hear something that might get his irritating supervisors off his back for once. He had been in this business for longer than he could remember, but he never seemed to get a break. After all, he was their perfect little worker bee, and perfect little worker bees had to keep on buzzing until their wings felt like they were about to fall off. 

Colt did his best to shake himself free of his bitterness, knowing that it wasn't going to help him in the slightest. If he was going to get something done, he was going to have to focus. He let out a small huff of a breath as he kept walking. He stopped when he came across an alleyway that nobody had bothered to watch over, and he drew a circle in the sky before passing through the portal that had been created in the space between the lines. 

Colt stepped out soon afterwards, and a heavy sigh left his lips as he turned his attention up towards the sky. Resting on the horizon was the palace that had once belonged to the Skylox Heroes. Colt was moderately familiar with it after having passed through the area many times, though he hadn't ever been given the chance to enter the building while its original owners were still alive. Once the Skylox Heroes fell, Colt simply grew too busy to bother visiting, not that he even wanted to as long as the space was empty. Colt wasn't afraid of ghosts or any other unholy power, but he still knew that he would prefer to stay as far away from an unoccupied building like that as possible. 

Hearing that there were people moving back into it after so much time had passed was a surprise, to say the least. Still, Colt hadn't given much thought to it. He knew that there was an effort being made to pull the Hanilia together, and he had to admit that he was impressed with all of the attention that Tuila Raigh was putting towards a project that hadn't been attempted in so many years. Still, he did his best to keep his distance as he moved closer to the palace.

Colt raised one hand to keep the sun from burning into his eyes. The star was positioned perfectly on the edge of the skyline to the point that it threatened to temporarily blind Colt if he wasn't careful, and he did his best to keep from swearing when he accidentally moved his hand out of place. He narrowed his eyes once he had been grounded once again and tried to focus on the figures shifting in front of the building while still taking care to not give his position away. 

There were seven of them, and Colt was able to figure out easily that the tallest among them was Tuila herself. She was standing with six younger people, and Colt realized that they were probably the Clan Leaders. Tuila gestured for them to gather together, and they did so without hesitation. All it took was a brief snap from Tuila for all six of them to disappear in a shower of light. Once again, Colt let out a vulgar string of words as the illumination temporarily stole his vision. 

Colt took in a deep breath before letting it out a moment later, and he realized that the Clan Leaders were probably returning to Earth since their work was done for the time being. He allowed his hand to fall back down away from his face as he turned away from the sun, fully slinking into the shadows. He was immediately accepted as the master of the darkness, and nobody would be able to see him without peering far closer than they would have originally liked to. Such was the nature of his magic, and it was one of many reasons that Colt had been dragged around by Otholle for so long. His secrecy made it easy to gather information for better or worse. 

Colt wasn't so foolish as to ignore his talents due to spite for his occupation though. In fact, when he had the chance to use his innate abilities to find information, he took advantage without hesitation. Otholle was troublesome, yes, but Colt knew how to manipulate a situation so that he would be able to find out what he was looking for. He had picked up a few tips of the trade in his many years of field work, and Colt was more than positive of the best ways to use each piece of information. 

For example, his finest piece of work was a catalogue that he was keeping only for his own gains. As far as he was concerned, Otholle's members didn't even realize that it existed. Colt snapped his fingers, and the shadows coiled together to create a stand for a book made of blue magic that quickly became solid soon afterwards. It was a difficult trick, simply creating the one of a kind book out of nowhere, but Colt found it to be far more reliable than using any Infinity Box. After all, if he happened to drop the object, the pocket dimension found inside would be under the full control of whoever picked it up. That was a risk that Colt simply couldn't take given how many secrets he was intent on keeping until death or escape did him part from Otholle's filthy grasp. 

Colt slid his hand along the surface of the book. It was pale blue in color to match the Water magic that Colt often fought with. Its cover was covered with characters in an ancient language from the times of Hyperion herself, proof that Colt had more than done his research in his time as a gatherer of information. He slipped his fingers underneath the cover and pulled it free as he started to flick through the pages. 

This had taken far more research than Colt would have cared to admit, but given the situation that he was in, he had nothing but time to find out all that he wanted to know. It was a project that he had started back when he was first created to be a field work investigator for Otholle, and even after so many years had passed by, he still hadn't let it go. At first, his job had been difficult since it involved looking at the past in excruciating detail, but the pieces started to slide into place after the investigations into the past came to a close so that he could focus on the present. 

Colt had been alive throughout many generations of changing Hanilia. When he first started gathering information, he had created this book as a way of cataloguing all of the Hanilia that he was aware of. As far as he could tell, he hadn't ever missed out on a member of any specific team. The pages were old and worn but still seemed incredibly sturdy when one touched them. Colt was the only one who was even aware that such a volume existed, and it was the culmination of everything that Otholle had taught him, albeit repurposed into something that Colt would have been able to use even long after he left behind his forced employment. 

The Clan Leaders were found near the back of the book where all current Hanilia were located. There were more gaps in the current generation than Colt liked, but he didn't really have much of a choice in the matter. For the most part, the newer Hanilia hadn't come out into the light, and that was nothing new. It took a while for people to recognize that they had some sort of higher destiny, and Colt needed time to gather information even after they were shoved into the public eye. In fact, there were only a few sections of his book that were complete for the current generation. 

The Clan Leaders, Draconic Superiors, and Fearbringers were all easy enough to fill out. The Clan Leaders had been marked down months prior when they first appeared in Daragon, and the Draconic Superiors had been there for years due to the lengthy lifespans of Rauleighans. The Fearbringers had been a bit harder to narrow down, but Colt had still managed to do it after the war involving Mersall had drawn to a close. It had certainly kept him busy at the time, but with everything all marked down and organized, he didn't have anything else notable to do with the book anymore. 

Colt let out a measured sigh as he fingered the edge of one page between his fingers. It always helped to relax him when he was getting particularly tilted at the actions of Otholle. It was easy for him to lose track of himself and the emotions he had been forced to hide for so long when Otholle started to step out of line and intrude on his life, but Colt had to stay calm. The last thing he wanted was for his current sense of freedom to be restricted by something unexpected. He certainly wouldn't have put it past Otholle to assign him with a partner upon realizing that there was something wrong about the way that he was operating on his own. 

The book, as helpful as it was, did have one weak point, and that was the matter that drew Colt's attention as he waited in the alleyway. The shadows seemed to recognize that there was something wrong, and they curled closer to him as a way of concealing him further from any wandering eyes. Colt flicked to the segment that was meant to highlight the Skylian Mages before his fingers came to an abrupt halt. 

The Skylian Mages were most certainly an interesting subject as far as Colt was concerned. It was difficult to properly say what sort of people would be in the group because there had only been one team. Lyloc had defined the group once, saying that there was one member for each of the elemental subgroups. Seeing people with multiple elemental abilities was incredibly rare, but someone possessing five elements that happened to fall into one of the five elemental subcategories was something special, and it was an easy clue that somebody was involved with the Skylian Mages. 

Colt was far from being a fool, and he knew exactly what powers he possessed. He was hesitant to show them due to his unfortunate dealings with Otholle, but he was still positive that his magic was far more than what met the eye. In fact, he was almost completely sure that he was a member of the Skylian Mages. There simply wasn't any other explanation for the strange power that he had been granted. Him being an immortal as a result of his artificial creation also fit the criteria of only one team ever being founded. After all, there was no reason to reincarnate if the mages in question never died of natural causes or old age. They would be around for as long as anyone could imagine. 

However, Colt still hadn't bothered to pen down such important information. To him, it was a risk that he simply preferred not to take. He was sure that the book on hand wouldn't fall into the wrong fingers, but he still figured that it was best to be safe rather than sorry. He kept it on his person or hidden with magic no matter where he went, but Colt wasn't one to take unnecessary risks. He would keep this secret until after he had managed to escape Otholle, and it would likely remain something that he knew about alone long after he had left behind the company as well. 

Colt allowed the book to disappear as the shadows came to curl in closer around him. This wasn't the time for him to engage in activities like reading. There were far more important subjects at hand, and he had to figure out something to keep the company off his back for just a little bit longer. He was tired of this dizzying cycle, but it wasn't as if he had a way to escape it. If there was a way for him to get out, he surely would have found it already. 

Otholle's grip was simply too large. Their range of vision was huge, and Colt knew better than to outrun the impossible if he could avoid it. Even if he managed to get away from his employment, the workers at Otholle would find a way to track him down, and when that happened, Colt would lose all of his freedom. He was going to wind up in serious trouble if he even attempted to leave without a plan. To stand up to Otholle was treated like an affront, and Colt couldn't help but think bitterly that there was a reason that nobody had ever bothered to get rid of them before. 

Skylia was a complicated planet for all of its perceived simplicity. Without the lack of a central government, each individual city functioned on its own. The Skylox Heroes had made it easier to run the planet given how organized they were, but it had been months since they were last alive, and there weren't any people who bothered to try and establish order from the chaos. It was too much hassle for a planet where nobody seemed to really care about what happened outside of their own tiny little bubbles. People lived in their blissful ignorance and pretended that the world at large was safer than it was, leaving all ideas of risk up to the back of their minds rather than placing it at the forefront of their imaginations. 

Some would have argued that this system was stronger than what other planets had at their disposal. It meant that nobody had to put up with frustrating figures such as the princess of Daragon, and there were no figureheads that anyone felt the need to listen to. Instead, there was simply the idea of the people existing for themselves, and that was all that anyone particularly cared about. 

In Colt's eyes, people were being foolish by thinking that this was going to work forever. Otholle was a dangerous group, and if they were left unchecked, they were going to start making more blatant grabs for power. Everyone knew that they were somewhat involved with politics as it was, but there was something strange about the way that they operated in the shadows that kept anyone from bothering to dig any deeper. All people who were curious simply shrugged it off as soon as the next distraction appeared, and all thoughts of Otholle were shoved to the wayside just as quickly as they had appeared in the first place. 

Colt shook his head as the shadows consumed him fully, giving him the power to slink in between the darkness of the buildings in the capital city of Skylia. One of these days, everyone was going to realize that Otholle was far from being a group to be trifled with. Soon enough, the people would recognize that something was wrong, and Colt wasn't looking forward to what happened when the truth came crashing down on the ignorant masses who had turned an uncaring eye to the problem for so many years. 

Because, of course, it would wind up as his mess to clean up. It always did. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for me to go beat a Fire Emblem game
> 
> -Digital


	24. Chapter Twenty-Three: Bonds Reforged

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A group of unexpected guests arrives at the Hanilia base.

Days came and went, and time began to bleed into a seemingly eternal stretch that was driving Jay absolutely up the wall. The search for a way to contact Colt continued as she had expected it to, but results were minimal. Lana and Jubilee were efficient when it came to finding new information, but it never quite seemed to be enough. The lack of action left Jay feeling particularly impatient. After years of being used to constant action, needing to wait around for such an extended period of time made her feel terrible, and she felt as if she always had to be moving around or doing something with herself so that she didn't feel completely useless. The newfound buzzing sensation that had settled beneath her skin was already beyond uncomfortable, and she detested it with everything that she had. 

It wasn't as if Jay had been expecting this to be easy. That was far from being the case, as a matter of fact. Jay knew what they were going to be getting into was difficult from the outset, but that didn't seem to ease her discomfort in the slightest. All she could do was buzz around like some kind of eager honeybee desperate to land on a flower. It was upsetting, and Jay wished that she could banish this feeling for even just a few moments so that she could sleep in peace. It was exhausting to constantly toss and turn before waking up without having received any decent rest the night before. All in all, she just wanted this stress to end. 

However, Jay knew better than to believe that it was that simple, so she allowed herself to sigh and continue on as she had been doing. They would be able to figure everything out soon enough, but until then, she would simply need to be patient. The world needed her to calm down and keep from acting rashly. Repeating such phrases to herself scarcely helped to calm her raging nerves, but it was something, and she needed the mantra far more than she could have ever anticipated initially. 

Jay glanced over to the other side of the small hotel room that the group had settled down in. It was far from being as large or extravagant as the one that they had been sharing near the tavern Jubilee used to work at, but it still worked. Plus, it was far cheaper, so they were able to save on funds by a significant amount. It was far more effective given that they had no idea how long they were going to be searching for Colt. 

As it turned out, Otholle was far more picky about what information slipped through the cracks than Jay expected. Most information about the Colt figure that Jubilee had come into contact with had been shoved aside and drowned out by other tidbits of the truth with perhaps a few lies mixed in for the sake of adding nice flavor. Those who did claim to have seen a shadowy mage with darkened eyes and shattered goggles said that he appeared be more phantom than human and wondered if perhaps he truly existed at all or was merely a figment of their imaginations instead. 

Jay let out a small sigh and closed her eyes as she sat down on the bed that she had been sharing with Lana for the past few nights. The group had been sharing this room for the past few days, and Lana and Jay split one of the two beds while the boys took the other one. Jubilee used the couch for her space and folded it out so that she could have all the room in the world. She often made joking comments about how she wouldn't object to sharing with Colt when they were able to eventually find him, but all that did for Jay was rub in the fact that it was going to be a while before they did anything to get closer to the frustratingly avoidant mage that had been ducking through their every suspicion. 

Then there was the matter of the final mage that they were meant to be tracking. Jay had found herself thinking about this figure a lot as of late, especially when she remembered the fact that Lana was positive that she knew something the rest of the group was unaware of. Jay wondered about the mage of Fire who had seemingly been brought to the land of the living by Mersall. She didn't like the idea of potentially having to ally herself with someone who had collaborated with the recent generation of Fearbringers given all of the chaos that they had caused, but she understood that she couldn't afford to be picky given the circumstances. 

Jubilee was a different story in Jay's eyes. Jubilee had been a cooperating party in a Fearbringer group many centuries ago, and she hadn't been involved with the Hanilia faction in a great many years. It would be ridiculous of Jay to remain petty with Jubilee because of her grudges against the modern group of Fearbringers when Jubilee hadn't ever been involved with them in the first place. She knew that she couldn't allow her feelings of negativity to get in the way of finding the truth. She was going to have to be careful, and she would keep from being too petty or snappish when the final member of the Skylian Mages did show themselves. 

Jay's eyes fell upon Lana in particular, and she resisted the urge to scrutinize every small crease on the girl's face. If she didn't know any better, she never would have guessed that Lana, as kind as she was, could hold such terrible secrets. It wasn't that Lana was a bad person; that was far from being the case. The two of them wanted to get to know each other better, and Jay could sense it from a mile away. However, their differing thought processes on Jay's past issues were what drove them apart, and Jay couldn't help but cringe at the idea that she would one day have to give in and tell everybody what she knew. Lana was going to make sure that she did it so that the group of traveling fighters would be able to rely on one another. 

It was going to have to wait until after Colt appeared though. Jay wanted all of the Skylian Mages to be together when she told the story so that she wouldn't have to be involved with all of the emotional aggravation that came with telling it all over again when a new member joined their ranks. It would be a story that she told once, and then she would refuse to acknowledge it ever again. That was what she believed would be for the best, and she wasn't about to back down from such an assertion. 

But for the time being, all she could do was wait. It was frustrating that she had nothing to do but simply sit there and wait for Lana or Jubilee to find something that they could use to track down Colt, but she didn't have much of a choice in the matter. They knew what they were doing, and Jay was sure of it. All she could do was be careful and continue looking to the future hopefully. Heaven knew that they were going to need all the optimism that they could get if they were going to get out of this mess with their sanity intact. 

~~~~~

Jayler tapped the eraser side of his mechanical pencil against the paper in front of him, willing his brain to shove him through his geometry homework. Math had never been his forte, and he was perfectly fine with confessing that it was his least favorite subject in school. He enjoyed reading and writing for the sake of being taken to faraway worlds that reminded him in some way, regardless of genre, of Hyperion and the fact that he seemed to live a fairytale each day. He loved science out of a basic curiosity to understand how the world worked, and his connection with history seemed to be similar to how he felt about English. 

Math, on the other hand, had never made sense to him. Who gave a damn about finding out the measure of congruent angles? Jayler knew that he certainly didn't care about it, and he didn't know how this was going to be relevant to him in the slightest. After all, it wasn't as if he was going to be looking into any careers on Earth. He had everything that he could have possibly wanted in Hyperion, and he was positive that the other dimension was all too eager to accept him for what he was. After all, he was a Hanilia, and it was his job to keep the realm safe. Jayler wanted to embrace such a position fully, and homework simply seemed like a buffer between his true goals and what he was being forced to live through day in and day out. It was pointless. 

Jayler hadn't actually spoken to any of the Clan Leaders yet on their thoughts regarding the future. He knew confidently that he was going to turn his attention to Hyperion in the future because he wanted to do everything that he could to help those who needed it. If the others were more attached to Earth than he was, then they hadn't said anything about it. He figured that the topic would come up sooner or later, and they could address it collectively when the proper time came. After all, they were in high school, and that meant that it was only a matter of time before teachers began to pester them for information on what they were planning on doing with the rest of their lives. 

"You look miserable."

Jayler glanced up to see that Gemini was standing above him, and he gave her a dramatic sigh as she slid into the seat across from him. They were in the middle of a study hall period at the moment, and Jayler was desperate to finish his homework as soon as possible so that he could focus on the more important things in his life. He couldn't daydream about Hyperion until after he had taken care of his primary issues, after all. 

"Yeah," Jayler replied, a teasing smile spreading across his face. Gemini gave him a light roll of her eyes, but the action was entirely playful, and Jayler knew it. Despite her stoic exterior, Gemini was far more kind and open to joking around than one would expect. Her glares were still stony and sharp, but she was just as caring as she was hardened. It was a strange paradox, but it wasn't one that Jayler objected to in the slightest. 

"You only need to give me one guess for me to figure out what you're thinking about," remarked Gemini, continuing without any need for prompting. "Still, we can think about that after you do your homework. I'm not here to offer you a distraction; I want to make sure that you get everything done so that we can go out for our next scheduled meeting in Hyperion."

"I know," Jayler muttered, trying to force himself to focus on the paper in front of him. He let out a groan when he saw a diagram that resembled proofs, and he shoved his hand against his face before sliding it downwards, leaving his eyes and lips somewhat contorted as a result of the dragging motion. When was this going to be over? When was high school in general going to be over? He was positive that he would far prefer the realm of Hyperion and its teachings to the boring stuff that Earth shoved down his throat constantly. 

Gemini reached into her bag and pulled out a book that almost appeared to be thicker than Jayler's head at a first glance. His eyes went wide as soon as he saw how small the text found within was, but Gemini didn't seem to notice. If she did realize that he was responding to her actions, she chose not to reciprocate such as a way of encouraging him to do his work. 

In a way, it wound up working out as she had planned, and Jayler put away his surprise before turning his attention back down to the paper in front of him. He wanted nothing more than for this to simply finish itself, but he knew that wasn't possible. If there was any magical spell that could cheat for him, he was unaware of it. Jayler wondered if perhaps that was for the best given how frequently he would have wound up using it. 

Jayler began to make his way through the proof in question, though his pencil moved mindlessly without him putting any attention towards it. He wanted to go back to Hyperion and help the Draconic Superiors with their recent endeavors to finish cleaning the castle. They were so close to being done that Jayler could almost feel it. There would be other Hanilia in there soon enough, and Jayler couldn't wait for that. 

Unfortunately, he would have to finish his homework first. As Jayler finished the proof, he let out a sigh of relief, realizing that he had reached the bottom of the page. However, the light glinted off the pale surface of the paper, and Jayler could see something on the other side. His stomach twisted with dread, and he turned it over to see even more questions waiting for him to fill them out. 

Jayler let out a groan and resisted the urge to slam his face against the table. Gemini flipped to the next page of her book. This school day could not be over soon enough. 

~~~~~

Zephyr hummed a tune under their breath as they navigated their way through the palace. They almost skipped from place to place, allowing the bright sunshine overhead to shine down on them. Zephyr resisted the urge to do a twirl, not wanting anyone to see. After all, they were a Draconic Superior, and they were meant to be professional. As for if they actually fit the bill or not, that was a matter that could be debated at a later point. 

Zephyr stopped beside a window and leaned out of it, allowing their right hand, which was holding tightly to a notepad, to droop through the open hole in the wall. They had been taking inventory on the rooms that were finished and ready for occupation since Tuila had noticed how passionate they were about this project. Zephyr had accepted readily since it gave them an excuse to get away from the suffocating efforts to rebuild over on Daragon. Zephyr wasn't fond of politics, and even cleaning duty was more interesting than that, especially if the building in question was a palace with too much history to ever be properly recorded. 

They looked up to the sky and let out a dreamy sigh. It was a beautiful day, and it seemed like the world was all coming together perfectly. They were away from Daragon, not a cloud was in sight, and it seemed like absolutely nothing could go wrong. 

Oh, they should have known that it was too good to be true. 

Zephyr's ears began to twitch a moment after they thought about how perfectly serene it all was. They frowned and perked up to their full height. As a Rauleighan, Zephyr had stronger senses than most other mages. Dragons had always been stronger in categories of sight, smell, and hearing, and while Zephyr's skills were nowhere near as refined as some others' were, they were still able to pick up on things that most others might have missed. 

They could hear something, though it was impossible to pick out what specific words were being spoken. Zephyr leaned out the window once again and began to search the region for any signs of the people that had caught their attention. They were pretty damn positive that people they didn't know well were making the noise, and there were a lot of them. The Draconic Superiors wouldn't have come back to Skylia without a warning. Tuila was far too organized, and all information of that nature would have gone through Valdez or Liathine before they arrived. If it wasn't them though, then who in the world would want to stop by the castle?

That was when Zephyr realized, and their jaw dropped in the blink of an eye. 

They scrambled away from the window, doing their best to not drop their notepad and pen in the process. The path to the stairs was quite long, and Zephyr realized a bit too late that it would have been faster to simply jump out the window and either transform into combat form or utilize their draconic half. Zephyr wound up following through after they finally managed to slide to a stop beside a window, and they didn't hesitate to shove their notepad into the space between their teeth and jump. Flesh transformed to scales, and powerful webbed wings sprouted from their back before easing them towards the ground. Zephyr returned to human form as soon as they touched down, and they returned to their full height after correcting their posture, though it did little to make them more threatening due to their general lack of verticality. 

Then again, only someone such as Tuila or Valdez would have been able to frighten the large crowd that had gathered in front of the locked doors of the palace. Zephyr frowned as they glanced out over the figures, picking out the faces that they recognized before settling on one particular person in the front. Their eyes narrowed, though it wasn't out of malice as much as it was blatant curiosity. Of all the people that they had expected to see, the Fearbringers had to be some of the last. 

"What are you doing here?" Zephyr questioned, unable to maintain their regular casual nature at first. They were too surprised to even bother utilizing a mask of conversational relaxation. The Fearbringers hadn't been seen publicly in ages, and it was shocking that they were even still completely together as a team of twenty-five at all. 

The last time that the Fearbringers had shifted into action had been during the war on Daragon against the greater army of false Hanilia. The final fight against Mersall had been a difficult one, especially because of the way that the had set up his forces. The army had been allowed to grow to such a magnitude because of his promises that all who joined him could be considered Hanilia. He had sabotaged the Fearbringer title, transforming it into a group that fought only for his twisted desires as opposed a team dedicated to the legitimate defense of Hyperion and its planets. The true Hanilia among the group, a party led by Zelda Artem, had vanished into thin air after the fighting drew to a close, and nobody was quite sure of where they had gone. Tuila had instructed the Draconic Superiors to leave them to their own devices for the time being, sure as could be that they would be crossing paths soon enough. It appeared to Zephyr that Tuila's words had been correct, and all they could do was stare and take a quick head count to ensure that everyone was present. Sure enough, they were all there. 

"We heard of your recent endeavors," Zelda explained simply. Everyone remained silent behind her, and Zephyr did their best to keep from glaring in her direction. Even though the Draconic Superiors and Clan Leaders had formed an uneasy alliance with the true Hanilia of the Fearbringers during the previous war, tensions were still high. Zephyr didn't think that they would ever be able to forget the actions of Zelda in particular during the war. Her strength was certainly welcome on the side of good, but Zephyr still had an uneasy feeling about working with her. They knew where her morals rested, but it still posed a few challenges as far as adjustment was concerned in Zephyr's eyes. 

"So you came by to see what everything was about," Zephyr concluded, doing their best to keep from sounding too overtly bitter. They knew that they were supposed to be working together, but it was far easier said than done to set aside so many years of concerns towards the people who had once been their enemies. The pain from the war was still fresh even after it had ended, and Zephyr didn't think that they would ever be able to forget. Mersall was the primary fighter who was personally responsible, and luckily he had been dead and buried ever since the fighting ended, but Zephyr's grudges would remain. They had never claimed to not be a petty person, and they wondered if any amount of peaceful conversation would be able to soothe their endless concern and previous spite. 

"You intend to gather together the Hanilia, yes?" Zelda questioned. If she picked up on Zephyr's poorly masked anger (which they were positive she had), then she chose not to acknowledge it, keeping her expression even instead. Her gaze shifted upwards to the castle itself, and a light sigh left her lips. 

"Yeah... One of these days," Zephyr replied. "But I didn't think that I would see any of you around here anytime soon. It's not like anybody has heard from you since the war. What have you been doing all this time anyways? I take it that you weren't causing problems, but I'm still pretty curious about why you just wiped yourselves off the face of the planet for a while."

Zelda gave a brief glance over her shoulder to her right-hand, and Zephyr found themselves inwardly scrambling to place a name to a face. As soon as he began to speak, they remembered. Tavi was his name. Tavi Keshran. "We were investigating certain matters that we believe may be of concern to you," he finally managed to say, crossing his arms over his chest. He seemed to be just as shady as ever, and Zephyr found themselves frowning. He had always been trailing in Zelda's shadow, and he was almost even more concerning and shifty than she was. They weren't going to openly say this, especially not when Tuila was undoubtedly trying to foster positive relations between their groups, but the unspoken hostility remained. 

"Oh?" Zephyr prompted, raising an eyebrow. Now that was something that they wanted to hear about. If the Fearbringers had truly been looking into other matters, then this was something that Tuila would undoubtedly need to be made aware of as soon as possible. The leader of the Draconic Superiors had primarily kept to her work on Daragon, but it wasn't out of the question for her to travel to Skylia to oversee the Hanilia base operation. In fact, hearing about something like this was bound to drag her away from her other duties. With how long the Fearbringers had been gone, Zephyr was positive that they had some juicy information to distribute when Tuila arrived. 

"I would rather only state our findings once, if it's all the same to you," Zelda said again, seeming to snap out of her previous trance. Her eyes had shifted into something oddly melancholy and guilty, and Zephyr found themselves frowning even deeper than before. Something about this place was clearly bothering Zelda, and they were desperate to know what it was. 

"I'll take care of it then," Zephyr replied. They took a step backwards towards the entrance of the palace before shoving the large doors open. Zephyr was strong, yes, but there was only so much that a person so tiny would be able to do against the pair of huge doors that led to the inside of the palace. They grunted under their breath from exertion, careful to not let the Fearbringers hear, before making their way inside. Zephyr was thankful when the other Hanilia chose to not move, instead simply watching from afar. Zephyr didn't think that they would have been able to tell them to wait even if they wanted to. They were still too surprised that the Fearbringers had actually returned to even think of raising objections. 

Zephyr let out a heavy sigh once they were alone in the castle again. They truly didn't know how to respond to all of this. The Fearbringers returning was sudden and unsettling, and this was the last thing that they had anticipated having to deal with. After all, who could have known that they would choose to crawl out of hiding at the exact time that Zephyr was alone at the castle? It was a perfect storm in the worst way possible. 

Zephyr supposed that this was inevitable, and they reached for a small metallic sphere resting in their pocket. A holographic image appeared before them, and they started to slide their fingers across the pictures in the air, internally thanking Liathine for sharing her technological advancements with the rest of them. Zephyr was used to being chipper and optimistic, but they found themselves oddly still as they examined the holograms, navigating to the function that would allow them to call Tuila. Normally, they only left messages for Tuila regarding the updates in the castle, but this felt far too urgent for that, and they were sure that Tuila would agree. 

Zephyr's thoughts flashed back to the peculiar expression that had settled on Zelda's face, and they began to frown. What could have caused her to be so upset when she first arrived at the castle? It simply didn't make sense to them. After all, wouldn't this have been her first time in the area?

When Zephyr remembered that wasn't the case, they had to resist the urge to hiss, unwilling to risk the chance that one of the Fearbringers outside would be able to overhear them. Of course this wasn't Zelda's first time at the castle. She had been there once before, back when the Skylox Heroes still inhabited it, and she had changed the course of history forever with a single slash of her sword. 

Back in the days of the Skylox Heroes, all of their souls had been connected to the Sapphin Tablet. It was an easy way to keep them eternally tethered to the land of the living, and even long after mortals would have perished, they continued to thrive and flourish. Lyloc herself had allowed such a powerful magic to be possible, and she had been all too happy to lead the Skylox Heroes into battle. Nobody ever thought that they could have been stopped. Skylia was always safe, and those who aligned themselves with the Skylox Heroes were granted security that not even the most powerful of armies would have been able to break through. They were a group to be admired and feared. 

But that was when a figure even more terrifying appeared. Zelda hadn't hesitated to destroy the Sapphin Tablet when the Skylox Heroes were distracted in a fight for their lives against the Fearbringers in the small town of Nadia. Skylia was left in chaos, and their primary form of protection fell apart in the blink of an eye. Much to everyone's surprise, the Fearbringers never even shifted their attention to Skylia again. They simply wanted to eliminate the possibility of the Skylox Heroes offering backup to the resistance fighters on Daragon. If the Skylox Heroes hadn't been so completely wiped out, leaving behind no survivors thanks to Zelda's actions, it surely would have been cause for war. 

Instead, the Skylians lived on in their blissful ignorance, unwilling to acknowledge the issue at hand. It was simpler for them that way. The issue couldn't hurt them if they refused to believe it was true, after all. That was the common belief, and all eyes were shifted away from Daragon. Those who had previously called for Skylia to fight alongside Daragon in the war against the Fearbringers fell silent, understanding that their safety mattered above all else. Zelda had changed history forever thanks to a single order from Mersall and a swing of a blade, and there was a strong chance that the world would never recover. 

In a way, it was Zelda's fault that the Hanilia alliance was even being considered at all. If she hadn't destroyed the Sapphin Tablet, killing the Skylox Heroes in the process, there would still have been a powerful fighting force to defend Hyperion with the force of multiple teams of Hanilia. Instead, only inexperienced members of a new generation were left behind, and instability could be found everywhere if one looked close enough. The ignorance of the Skylian people wouldn't be able to protect them forever, and when that innocence shattered, the glass was bound to embed itself in every part of life. There would be no escape, and the ensuing bloodshed would all fall on Zelda's shoulders. 

But Zephyr voiced none of this, instead letting out yet another even breath as they began their call with Tuila. A gentle ringing sound echoed throughout the empty entryway of the castle, and Zephyr glanced around the room, desperate to find anything that would distract them. They had no idea how Tuila was going to take the news, but they already had an awful feel about it. 

_"Hello?"_

Hearing Tuila's voice from the other side caused Zephyr's expression to melt into a nervous smile. They knew that Tuila wasn't able to see them, but they could still hear the stress in her voice, and they realized that this wasn't going to be easy. Then again, all they had to do was say the words, right? Tuila could manage her reaction on her own time after the message had been passed along. 

Zephyr cleared their throat. "You are not going to believe this."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fire Emblem is fun
> 
> -Digital


	25. Chapter Twenty-Four: Alba

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Clan Leaders learn of the Fearbringers' recent findings.

Jayler could tell that something was different the instant that he arrived on Skylia. 

A few days had passed, and he had grown almost desperate to return to Hyperion to see what new information was waiting to be uncovered. Perhaps it was instinct that whispered to him that he could expect something different when he next arrived in Hyperion. Jayler didn't know for sure, but he didn't particularly care either. 

Something about the castle simply seemed off compared to how it usually was, and Jayler frowned as he took a step closer. Liathine was the one who had brought them to Hyperion this time around, and Jayler couldn't help but wonder why Tuila hadn't been the one to follow through with the regular routine that they had fallen into. The knowledge sat uncomfortably in Jayler's stomach, and he found himself shifting anxiously. 

"Why didn't Tuila come to pick us up?" Xia asked for the second time. She had questioned Liathine on the matter originally after the Metal mage first made an appearance, but Liathine had simply turned her gaze away and refused to answer. Xia's voice was starting to fill with agitation, and Jayler could practically feel her desperation from his place a few feet away. 

"Let's just say that Tuila has been dealing with other matters," Liathine finally answered after a long moment of silence. She shook her head soon afterwards, and Jayler couldn't help but wonder what it could have been. It wasn't like Tuila to leave something this important to someone else. Tuila trusted Liathine with the world and more, but it still seemed odd to him that she wasn't the one there to help the Clan Leaders get settled into the castle for the day. 

Xia darted forward when she realized that Liathine wasn't going to be offering a direct response, and Gemini took quick steps in her direction to make sure that Xia didn't find herself in any sort of trouble. The two girls worked together to push open the main doors to the castle, and Jayler trailed after them quietly. He could still sense that something was wrong, and he got the feeling that they felt the same way on the matter. 

"No way," Lex murmured as soon as the doors to the castle had been opened. Her jaw had dropped, and she looked shocked beyond imagination. Jayler studied her for a moment before turning his eyes towards the object of her confusion. 

Zelda was standing in the main area of the castle, Tavi at her side. Tuila was near them, and Valdez was resting behind her with his gaze as dark as usual. It appeared that the Clan Leaders had walked in on something incredibly serious, and Jayler immediately felt out of place. It felt as if Zelda's gaze was pinning him in place, and her eyes shifted to Lex soon afterwards before she forced herself to focus on Tuila once again. Tavi was somehow even more judgmental, and Jayler found himself wishing that the Death mage would simply leave him alone before he had even done anything. 

"The Fearbringers are back," Liathine finally explained, addressing no one in particular with her words. "They arrived a few days ago. We've been busy with trying to set everything up so that they can operate out of the castle with the other Hanilia that we've gathered thus far. They'll be our third group alongside the Clan Leaders and Draconic Superiors."

"Is the palace ready for occupation then?" Luke asked. He still refused to look up to Zelda and Tavi directly, and he had taken to messing with his glasses quietly to keep himself busy enough to justify blatantly not paying attention to them. 

"It is," Tuila replied. Her words were curt and stoic, and Jayler sensed a sudden edge to her demeanor that didn't sit well with him at all. He did his best to keep from openly cringing, but that was most certainly easier said than done. When Tuila was upset, it seemed like the entire world felt it, and Jayler had to admit that he had been hoping she would get better about it all after the war ended. It seemed such a blessing simply was not meant to be though. 

"Is there anything that you want to tell us?" Xia asked, her voice deadpan. It was clear what answer she wanted, and Jayler found himself desperate for an explanation as well, though he wasn't quite as prone to condescension on the matter. The Fearbringers had been scarcely mentioned since the work on the castle began, and given how important they had been throughout the war between Daragon and Mersall's army, the sudden silence on the matter was most certainly concerning. Them reappearing this way made Jayler rather anxious. 

"There's quite a bit to discuss, as a matter of fact," Zelda answered. "The Fearbringers are already aware, and I can only imagine that the Draconic Superiors working on Daragon have heard the news from Tuila as well. It's only natural that we fill you in."

Jayler didn't think that he was ever going to get used to seeing Zelda on their side of the fight. After all of the problems that she had caused during the war, it didn't seem natural to think that she was on their side. She had done so much damage, but all of that had been placed in the past all of a sudden. Jayler knew that he should have adjusted to this back when the Fearbringers first joined the army back during the fight, but he still felt uncomfortable considering Zelda of all people on his side. Other Fearbringers were fine, but Zelda was a problem. 

Still, he didn't object as the rest of the group moved elsewhere. Jayler was barely paying attention as he followed Ocean's telltale ponytail away from the entrance of the castle to a meeting room located on the second floor. The next thing Jayler knew, he was sitting in a chair alongside the other Clan Leaders. Lex and Gemini were positioned directly on either side of him while Ocean sat on Lex's other side. Xia and Luke were sitting on Gemini's other side. Tuila and Liathine filled the buffering space between the Clan Leaders and Fearbringers. 

"After the war, the Fearbringers began to focus our collective attention on gathering information," Zelda began to explain. "I directed the group in finding out more about the Lakinya who fought in the original war against the first generation of Hanilia and the goddess Hyperion. Mersall was originally a Lakinya, and if he was able to rise to power once again, then it only makes sense that other Lakinya would be able to recover their full strength after all this time and then turn their attention to the world at large."

"And you've found one of them," Ocean concluded, her eyes going wide. Everything about her expression said that she had put the pieces together, and Jayler could see that her hands were clenched tightly in her lap. "Please tell us everything you know. We want to help."

Tavi crossed his arms and glanced down to the table, refusing to meet anyone's gaze directly. "Their name is Alba. They're an Ice mage as far as we can tell, though it's difficult to find out more about them," he replied. "Alba has been making false creatures to roam the streets of Skylia in the name of their mission. Nobody knows quite what they're aiming for. Unlike Mersall, they never bothered to make their existence known or public. It took a long time for us to even find that much out about them. We'll have to do a lot more digging if we want to figure out what they're aiming for or even how they intend to accomplish it. Their accomplices are a mystery as well. Nothing about them seems to make complete sense to any of us."

"Alba..." Ocean murmured, glancing down to her lap somberly. "If they're a member of the Lakinya, it's safe for us to assume that they're probably dangerous. Mersall was trying to eradicate Daragon, and he experimented on Rauleighans in order to make them stronger at the expense of their control. That was just one member of the Lakinya, and I fear what Alba could be capable of."

"They operate out of the shadows," Zelda said next. "It's not as if we know anything else about them. Their name was difficult enough to obtain. They've been up to this for a while as far as I can tell, and there are some rumors that they can even control their Ice creatures to an unhealthy degree. The creations have free will of their own, at least to an extent, but all it takes is one action for Alba to take over their bodies and leave them to crumble under the raw force of their power. Nobody knows how many of them there are, and we're going to have to be careful if we want to keep from being caught by them."

"If there are really so many of them, then we're going to have to keep information tight to our chests," Luke pointed out. "We don't want any information to get out, because we have no idea what could happen if Alba gets their hands on anything that we don't want them to."

"We're going to have to keep looking for a while if we want to figure out what's happening," Tavi announced. "We don't know anything beyond what we've already told you about, and I'm not going to lie to you and say that we have answers when that's far from being the truth. Give us time. We'll figure it out."

"Feel free to operate out of the castle until then," Liathine told him. Her voice remained even, but Jayler could tell that she was still hesitant to open up the palace so readily to the Fearbringers. The scars left behind by the war on Daragon hadn't yet healed, and part of Jayler wondered if they would ever fade away completely. He thought he already knew the answer. 

"Thank you," Zelda said simply. She pushed away from the table and walked towards the door. "Good day." Tavi trailed after her, and the last that Jayler saw of either of them was the loose swish of the end of Zelda's braid. He found himself staring at the place where she vanished from for a long time after she left, and he realized too late that he had bee holding his breath in the silence. 

"There you go," Tuila announced to the Clan Leaders. "We're going to have to follow their lead to figure out what's going on here. Skylia has been unstable ever since the fall of the Skylox Heroes. Even if everything looks alright at a first glance, we can't allow ourselves to become complacent. It's too much of a risk. Alba could very easily use the perception of peace to act out of line."

"Is there anything that we can do?" Lex asked softly. Her eyes were filled to the brim with concern, and she suddenly seemed incapable of staying still in her seat. "There has to be some way that we can help with all of this. I don't want to leave this to everybody else."

Liathine shook her head. "We don't know what to do yet. We still need to come up with a plan about how we're going to gather information while maintaining solid security here. The assistance of the Fearbringers does help, but we can't completely rely on them quite yet. It'll take time for them to earn our trust. We might not have had much of a choice in trusting them during the war, but we most certainly have options now, and we need time to see if they're fully reliable."

Valdez walked into the room next, and Jayler nearly jumped at the sight of him. He had been so focused on the Fearbringers that he completely forgot that Valdez had been in the castle at all, and he winced at the realization that he had made such an oversight. If Valdez noticed, he chose not to acknowledge it, though this was far from being a surprise for Jayler. This was simply how Valdez operated. He was somehow even more stoic than Tuila and Liathine, and that was most certainly saying something. 

"I'm here with a report on Cloudpeak," Valdez said, finding a seat in the chair that Zelda had been in a few moments prior. There was a folder tucked under his arm, and he slid it across the surface of the table to Tuila without blinking. 

Tuila accepted it readily, and she flicked it open with passive eyes. "Explain to the Clan Leaders," she instructed, her voice airy and distant. She flipped to the next page, and Jayler realized just how dark the circles beneath her eyes were. How long had she been working on trying to settle the Fearbringers into the castle?

Valdez took in a steadying breath before his gaze fell on the Clan Leaders, and Jayler resisted the primal urge to slink away from Valdez's eyes. "Cloudpeak is a city hidden among the deserts of Skylia. It's been isolated for more than a hundred years now, and the sand itself of the land keeps it and its neighboring volcano hidden from view," Valdez began. "We realized recently that there was a magical disturbance in the area, and closer examination from some of the Draconic Superiors showed us that there was a battle there recently."

Tuila shut the folder and set it back down on the table with a small thumping sound. "Seems like we're going to have to send the Fearbringers there next. It's as good a place as any to continue the investigation," she remarked. 

"We have reason to believe that the disturbance was caused by one of the false creations of Alba. Speaking with the townspeople told us that there was a leader of the town who waltzed in at some point many years ago, and he was an Ice mage. A group of outsiders breached the town recently, and they defeated the town's leader. The occupants of Cloudpeak said that they were finally free of the manipulation of the one who led them, and they claimed that the newcomers took a member of the community with them when they left, a boy named Ronan who is widely suspected to be immortal," Valdez continued. 

"If a creation of Alba was responsible for all of this, then we need to identify the issue as soon as possible. That might give us magical traces that we can use to track down Alba and bring them to justice. We can figure out who the outsiders are along the way, and that should make it easier for us to unravel the pieces behind this mystery," Tuila announced with a weary sigh. "I'm going to send some of the Fearbringers in that direction after this information has been passed on. Thank you for investigating the matter, Valdez. I appreciate it."

Valdez nodded in Tuila's direction, and Jayler found himself biting down on his lip nervously. He didn't know how to approach all of this. Everything was happening so quickly between the return of the Fearbringers and the mention of this Alba character. He had a feeling that it would be explained soon enough, but the time that he was going to spend waiting was bound to be agonizing. Jayler liked to think of himself as a relatively patient person, but he didn't think that anything could have prepared him for being forced to sit around and wait through so many different chains of events after arriving in the Galaxy of Hyperion. 

"Could you tell us more about Cloudpeak?" Lex questioned, raising her hand politely. "Anything that you could talk to us about would be great. I would love to hear everything that we can about that place. It's not like any of us have heard of it before now, and it could wind up being helpful to our mission in the longterm."

Tuila nodded, and Valdez rose to his feet before retreating from the room, undoubtedly heading off to designate the new orders to the Fearbringers. Tuila watched him go before closing her eyes and pinching at the bridge of her nose. Jayler could already tell that she was suffering from a headache, but he didn't comment on such out of a wish to keep from making it worse. 

"Cloudpeak is a city located in the heart of a desert like Valdez already stated. The town can be found at the base of a volcano known for overflowing with magical energy. Many of the mages in the area are somehow based around the elements of Fire, Earth, or Sand as a way of controlling the terrain around them or keeping the peak itself from erupting. The mountain has only erupted once in recent memory, and that was before the previous leader of the town, Cryai, first appeared," Tuila began to explain. "Cryai is suspected to somehow be involved with Alba. He was an Ice mage who could keep the mountain under control, and many described feeling unsettled around him, almost as if something about him was fundamentally wrong."

"And that fundamental issue was likely the fact that he wasn't a real person at all," Ocean concluded. "You mentioned that he was a creature spawned by Alba as far as current theories are concerned. He likely waltzed in and used his elemental power to assert dominance over the others who lived in the town. Plus, he would have been able to control the mountain, and if nobody else could look after the peak, then he could have used that as blackmail."

"For a long time, the ones who guarded the mountain were from a specific family. Their heir suddenly went missing though, and that was around the time that the last eruption took place. When the family died out in the following years, Cryai appeared and took their place in controlling the mountain. Nobody else was sure of how to do it, so that gave him the perfect chance to assert his power over the others within the village from a place where they wouldn't be able to fight back," Tuila continued. 

"It was most certainly a blackmail situation then," Xia concluded. "What about this heir of theirs? Does this have anything to do with the peculiar character who was taken away from Cloudpeak when the recent group of visitors left?"

Tuila nodded. "As a matter of fact, yes. The heir went by the name of Ronan, and he went missing for many years. By the time that he appeared next, he had few memories of what had happened to him, and Cryai had taken over the village. Cryai was always close to him, making sure that Ronan didn't step out of line. The villagers said that there was always something off about Ronan's relationship with Cryai. After Cryai died, Ronan was taken from the village by the recent visitors that passed through. Ronan was widely suspected to be immortal due to the fact that he never seemed to age when the other occupants of the town were watching," she remarked. 

"What does that mean?" Luke asked, glancing back and forth between Tuila and the table nervously. "I mean, we know that you Rauleighans age far slower than other people. Mages in general seem to age on the slower side, so what is it about Ronan specifically that makes people feel like something is off?"

"He's had the appearance of a seventeen-year-old or so for many years. He looks even younger than that, as a matter of fact. Mages age slowly, yes, but they don't reach a point of stagnating in appearance until after they're closer to twenty-five. Late-onset immortality would most certainly cause the aging process to halt at that specific age. People lived their entire lives without him so much as growing a wrinkle. That should make it pretty clear that he's not just any regular mage. He's most certainly an immortal, and that has unexpected implications on what we do from here," Tuila told him. She let out yet another sigh, and Jayler saw the tired sheen to her eyes come back once again. 

"I bet that we're going to have to figure out what this immortality could mean for us in the future," Ocean murmured. "Do you have any theories personally about what we'll learn from this endeavor, Tuila?"

Much to Jayler's surprise, Tuila actually nodded. "I have one idea, if you want to get specific. The group of Hanilia known as the Skylian Mages has always been elusive. As far as I can tell, there's only been one group, and that would make sense if they were all immortals. There aren't many immortal people out there, and those who are tend to keep their secrets as close to their chests as possible for the sake of not causing trouble. I believe that the group that passed through Cloudpeak could have consisted of members of the Skylian Mages looking for another member of their own. Coincidentally, another figure known for living in the shadows, something that you would expect from an immortal, happened to leave their previous confines around the same time that Ronan left Cloudpeak. That's rather suspicious, wouldn't you say?" she asked. 

Jayler found himself grinning at her words. "Imagine that! We might be able to figure out what's been going on with that group sometime soon then! I mean, the information about the castle should have spread by now, and that means that they might come in our direction after they've all together as a team. That sure would be helpful for us, wouldn't it? I know that I would love to get to know them all. It'll be nice to have a group of new occupants in the castle to enjoy all of the hard work that we've done," he declared. 

"It'll be easier said than done to track them down though," Gemini pointed out. "Judging by the fact that Tuila hasn't mentioned the recent actions of this group at all, I think it's safe for us to say that she doesn't know where they went. Ronan's current location is a mystery, and that means that we're going to have to figure out where they are for ourselves if they don't want to come to us themselves. If they're really as cagey as immortals are by Tuila's implications, then we've got yet another large task on our plates to take care of."

"We're already looking for people as it is," Jayler reminded Gemini, and he felt his smile begin to falter. "It wouldn't hurt for us to go on and add one more group to the list." He didn't elaborate properly on who it was that they were searching for, but Jayler knew that such an effort was unnecessary. The rest of the group already knew that he was talking about the Silver Knight. 

On that note, Jayler let out a small gasp, and he found himself wincing as he realized that he hadn't mentioned that to the rest of the group yet. Tuila certainly wasn't aware of it because much of her recent work had taken place on Daragon rather than Skylia. He let out a small sigh as he braced himself for what was to come, and everybody looked over in his direction as he prepared to speak. "I have one other thing that I want to tell you guys about," he announced. 

Nobody interrupted him, so Jayler took this as a chance to continue. "The Silver Knight came to visit me a while ago when we were staying here in the castle," he explained. "I don't think that I ever told you about it, so I'm doing that now. She was still wearing her armor, and she said that she wanted to keep her identity hidden for a while longer as she carried out another mission."

"She's still doing that?" Xia questioned, not bothering to hide how irritated she was. After she realized her abrasive tone, Xia cringed and shook her head to get rid of the residual sensation. "That's unfortunate. I was hoping that we would be able to hear everything from her without any strings attached. It's been so long since we were able to talk to her at all, and it isn't like she's been perfectly honest with us quite yet. She's been wearing the armor ever since we first saw her, and I want to know what her deal could possibly be."

"She said that she had another mission to take care of," Jayler repeated to Xia, but he didn't look at her long enough to see her reaction. "I don't know what it could be specifically though. She didn't tell me about it, but I guess that's sort of part of the point of what she does. She doesn't want us to hear about it until after everything has been sorted. I want to help her, but there's not much that we can do about it until after she takes off that armor of hers..."

"If you ask me, the armor has something to do with the symbol that appears on both of your bodies," Tuila chimed in, and Jayler realized that she had sat up straight in her seat at the mention of the Silver Knight. In a way, it made sense given the fact that Tuila and the Silver Knight had suffered from quite a bit of discord when they first crossed paths during the war on Daragon. 

Jayler nodded, and his hand strayed to the base of his neck. The mark that showed that he was the reincarnation of Soluna, one of the gods responsible for creating Earth, had been hidden for quite some time as a result of the influence of the Draconic Superiors. It had only appeared after his first encounter with the Silver Knight, and it made a striking amount of sense that she was trying to keep it hidden. Still, Jayler thought that she should have at least shown her face to him. After all, they were twins, and they both wanted to get to know one another. Jayler was sure of his own feelings, and he could tell that she agreed with him on such a front despite her naturally distant demeanor. 

"We'll find her soon enough," Lex told Jayler, placing a hand on his arm as she spoke. Her eyes glittered with her regular sense of optimism, and Jayler found himself smiling at her words. Lex was great when it came to cheering people up, and Jayler was far from being immune to her charisma. 

Jayler took in another grounding breath, and he nodded to her. "I think that we've all figured out our next mission at the very least. With the Skylian Mages out and about, that means that we can try to find them. The castle is basically ready for people to start living in it, and that's a good first step for everything that we want to do from here on out. We can focus on figuring out where the Skylian Mages are for now, and we can branch out from there if anything else just so happens to come out," he declared, slipping into his leader disposition effortlessly. 

Tuila rose to her feet at his words, her fingers still perched against her head. Instead of rubbing at her nose, they came to rest on the side of her head, making it even clearer than before that she was nursing the residue of a headache. "I'll leave you to try and learn as much as you can then. I need to join Valdez in discussing the coming mission with the Fearbringers in case any of them have questions regarding what comes next. They're going to be reporting to us from now on just like during the war. Zelda might be their leader, but she's agreed to ally herself and her team with us, so I'll be the one directing them on what to do and when," she announced. "May the rest of the day treat all of you well." 

As Tuila made her way to the door, the Clan Leaders were silent, not wanting to bother her due to the pain she was undoubtedly suffering from. After the door tapped shut gently behind her, Jayler turned to the rest of the group, and he rose to his feet. Their eyes all gleamed with the same determination that his did, and Jayler found himself smiling at the idea that they were going to be working together on a grand mission once again. As fun as renovating the castle had been, they were silently yearning for something more, and their wishes had finally been granted. 

Jayler's eyes slipped shut for a moment, and he wondered what it was that they were set to find next. Something deep inside told him that it was bound to be great regardless of what issues they happened to face along the way. After all, they had endured many great obstacles before, and he was positive that they would continue to do such from that point forward. They were going to find the Silver Knight and the Skylian Mages as a team, and they would be able to band together with other Hanilia factions to fight back against this Alba character and ensure that nobody else was hurt under their actions. 

The world seemed so simple in that moment despite all of its hidden complications regarding the Skylian Mages, Alba's hidden motives, and the Silver Knight's new mission. They were about to head back into action as the Clan Leaders, and Jayler found himself far more excited for it than he had expected. Soon enough, everything was going to fall into place, and he couldn't wait for what was going to happen when the universe finally showed the Clan Leaders the full extent of its beauty. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this update is a day late Saturday updates resume next week
> 
> -Digital


	26. Chapter Twenty-Five: Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team unites with Colt before Lana reveals an unsettling truth.

In the end, finding Colt boiled down to a matter of chance.

Jay had been starting to get incredibly sick of waiting for a way to find Colt, and Lana's constant research, as helpful as it was, left Jay feeling antsy and on edge. She couldn't find a way to calm herself with how anxiety-inducing the concept of trying to search Colt was. Sleep was a constant battle with her own mind, and she couldn't find a way to break through the veil that blocked her from the future. 

Lana and Jubilee's incredible skills with gathering information ultimately led them in the direction of Colt. They had wound up in the same city that Colt was passing through by pure luck, and Jay was beyond happy to finally see the outline of a figure that Jubilee had described back when they first came together. Her jaw dropped in shock, and Ronan began to grin wildly when he realized what was happening. 

If Colt realized why they were there, he chose to not bother with running away. He simply stood there and stared as the team searching for the Skylian Mages drew closer, and his eyes narrowed as Arian began to wave to him. Jubilee's face settled into a gentle smirk, and Colt let out a small sigh before glancing down to the ground. 

When Colt finally did move, he began to walk as far away from the nearby town as possible. He moved slowly enough for the Skylian Mages' group to follow him without any issues, and the crowds bustling through the town square were suddenly inconsequential. Jay couldn't help but smile at the thought that their little group was finally together to the extent that she was aware of. After all of the searching that they had been forced to endure, they were able to find Colt. Their search undoubtedly wasn't complete quite yet, but they were one step closer to being together in full, and that was all that Jay could ask for. 

Jay pulled back as the rest of the group arrived in the outskirts of the nearby town, and she let out a small sigh as Colt glanced up to meet her gaze for the first time. She could see that he certainly fit the description that Jubilee had described. His skin was a lovely tan color that complemented his hair perfectly. For the most part, his hair appeared to be a deep brown color, but there were highlights of mahogany red that could be seen glittering in the light. His eyes were deep brown, and gold flecks dotted the dark hue. He wore mostly dark clothing from black to navy blue, and the lower half of his face was hidden in a scarf that obscured his lips. A pair of goggles with cracked lenses sat on his forehead at the heart of his messy hair, but he didn't seem to mind in the slightest. 

"It's nice seeing you again," Jubilee remarked to Colt after they had all settled down. There was a laugh playing at the back of her throat already, and Jay could hear the sound before it even formed. 

Colt's eyes narrowed, and he shook his head dismissively. "You don't know what you're doing here. I thought that we had come to a silent agreement about not meeting once again," he commented. 

"Unfortunately for you, I never agreed to such a thing. Besides, I had my suspicions about you from the outset, and I'm seeing now that I most certainly had a reason to think that there was something off regarding you, Colt," Jubilee told him with a loose shrug. "I believe that I know who and what you are... Skylian Mage."

Colt's shoulders went tense, and his eyes narrowed. "I'm afraid I don't know what you're referring to," he told her. He attempted to keep his voice even, but Jay could still see that there was something strained to his entire body. Part of Jay's mind wondered if perhaps Colt was intentionally showing such signs of weakness. If he was truly as good at his job as Jubilee had made it sound, he wouldn't have been so vulnerable at a first encounter, so this was the only explanation that Jay could think of that made sense. 

"We've been trying to gather the Skylian Mages together, and I think that you're one of us. Meet Jay, Arian, Ronan, and Lana," Jubilee told Colt with a smile. "I understand why you've been acting as distant as you have been, you know. I want to make that clear from the beginning. You're working with Otholle, and you don't exactly have much of a chance when it comes to escaping the clutches of your employers. Am I correct in such an assumption?"

Colt took a step back, and his eyes went wide with a sense of falsified alarm before he cleared his throat and glanced to the ground once again. "It seems that you truly do mean that I should leave my previous endeavors behind to focus on other things," he murmured. When he looked up once again, everything about him seemed composed and relaxed. Jay could tell that all of his previous tension was nothing more than a distant memory, and if she had to guess, it wouldn't be an issue throughout her future interactions with him. 

"As a matter of fact, that is what I mean," Jubilee responded with a shrug. "Why don't you make this easier on us all and just come with us? I can tell that you're completely miserable in your current job, so there's no point for you to stick around. I don't want you to run back there when you have a much better chance of enjoying yourself around here."

"I feel like there's a bit more to it than that," Colt told her evenly. Still, he didn't object at all to her proposal, and when he continued, something about him almost bordered on being agreeable. "I believe that we have quite a bit to discuss before we can consider this subject resolved though. Why don't we speak somewhere a bit more private? There are some people who have eyes and ears everywhere. I feel like you know that better than anyone."

Jubilee laughed at his words, and she shook her head in a way that made it seem as if she was playing it off as opposed to plainly objecting. "Alright then. If you want private, I'm sure that we can do something like that. Any suggestions for a place to go, you four?" she questioned, suddenly referring to the other members of the group. 

Jay didn't have an answer for her, but Lana most certainly did. "There was a small patch of forested land near the entrance to the town. That should offer us with a bit of cover and privacy, wouldn't you say?" she questioned. "If anyone tries to eavesdrop on us, I'll know. There are some perks that come with being the person that I am."

Jay was positive that Lana was referring to her robotic makeup, and Jubilee seemed to catch onto this as well. The Fire mage simply nodded before she started to walk away, her two ponytails swaying as she moved further from the nearby town where they had found Colt in the first place. She silently implied that everyone else was meant to follow her, so Jay did so without a moment of hesitation. At long last, they were making progress in coming together as a team, and that was what mattered most. 

The trip to the quiet area of trees nearby seemed to take both an eternity and no time at all simultaneously. Jay was desperate to hear what Colt had to say, making the moments drag on like nothing else, but at the same time, she was almost afraid of his words as well. The paradox bothered her, and she found her stomach knotting itself a dozen times over out of a blend of fear and anticipation. 

The trees all seemed to be leaning in, ready to listen with everything they had at their disposal despite not truly being sentient. Jay watched as the branches swayed overhead in a gentle breeze as the six members of the group formed a small circle at the center of a clearing that was only just barely large enough for all of them to stand together. She glanced around at the others who were around her, smiling to herself as she realized how much things had changed in the past few weeks since she first began to search for the Skylian Mages. 

"Go on and talk," Jubilee instructed Colt, pulling Jay away from her thoughts immediately. Jay pressed her shoulders back in a show of confidence as she watched Colt through narrowed eyes. She didn't know what she was meant to be expecting from this conversation, but she was going to stick it out regardless. 

Colt watched Jubilee with a critical gaze, undoubtedly dissatisfied with her bluntness, before he answered. "You can call me Colt Curre. I'm an information gatherer working with the Otholle company, though I suspect that you already knew about that. They've been asking me to find out as much as I can about various subjects, but I want out. Then again, Jubilee is incredibly nosey, so I suspect that you were already aware of that as well."

Jubilee gave him a barbed stare for a moment due to the nosey comment before she focused in on the subject at hand once again. "You can find at least relative safety with all of us. We haven't been forced to fight yet as a team, but we'll do what we can to keep you away from the trouble that Otholle would undoubtedly bring. I don't want to put up with them, and I know that the rest of the group feels the same way. We'll do what we can," she told him. 

"We have fought, as a matter of fact," Lana corrected Jubilee. "Not since you joined the group, but we have engaged in combat once, and I know that Arian and Jay were fighting together at least briefly before I showed up as well. As far as I'm aware, everyone here has the ability to transform to one of the higher levels of magic."

"Hisero for all of us as far as I'm aware," Jay told Lana before her gaze fell on Ronan. "Well... Except for Ronan. Solani, right?" She had been able to sense, at least to some degree, the power levels that the other members of the group possessed, and she was positive that her assumptions would wind up being correct. 

Ronan nodded at her words, and Jay glanced down to the ground. Hisero was the highest level of magic, and it wasn't something that many people her age had reached. Then again, it wasn't as if she was exactly part of the status quo. She had stood out from the crowd for as long as she could remember. Solani was the second level, and while most people who had lived for as long as Ronan had would have been at the Hisero level, Ronan wasn't exactly the same as the rest of the mages who were his age. His isolation within Cloudpeak made that rather clear. 

As for Jay personally, she wasn't fond of transforming. She hadn't ever done it much, often preferring to fight with simply a sword and her own wits. It wasn't exactly ideal for all situations, but it was what she was used to, and she wasn't about to contest such a thing. Jay hadn't ever fought transformed when she was at the Syllix or Solani levels, as a matter of fact, and she rarely used her Hisero form either. Of course, there was a reason for that, but she wasn't about to betray such a fact to the rest of the group. 

"Alright," Colt muttered, but Jay was positive that despite his positive word, Colt didn't think that this would be enough to defend them from the clutches of Otholle. If they were truly as ruthless as Jay had been led to believe, it was only a matter of time before issues began to arise because of Colt's departure from their group. 

Until then though, all they could really do was stick together, and Colt seemed to understand such a fact. "Skylian Mages, huh..." he whispered, taking in the appearances of everyone in the group. "Six of us? That's rather strange. I would have expected there to only be five, one for each of the major element types."

"I'm not..." Jay began to say, raising one hand to interrupt Colt before his assumptions could go out of hand. She knew her place in the world, and she didn't want Colt to misconstrue it. She most certainly wasn't the same as the other members of the group. 

"Jay," Lana suddenly cut in, her voice far sharper than Jay had been anticipating. The girls locked eyes, and Lana's expression hardened. "I want you to be honest with us. I know that there's something going on, and you're going to have to tell us sooner or later."

Jay's eyes widened, and she tried to stifle her shock at the fact that Lana was forcing her to tell the truth about the past so soon after Colt had showed up of all times. She could feel the gazes of everyone in the group on her, and Colt's eyes in particular felt incredibly probing despite how new he was to the team. Ronan's gaze spoke of pure curiosity, but Jubilee's wonder was a bit less innocent. Arian looked down to the grass below, watching as the individual strands bended. 

"Then again, I suppose that I shouldn't only be calling you out for something like this," Lana continued, and Jay felt as if she could breathe once again when everyone's gazes shifted to Lana instead of her. "After all, there's someone else who has a few things to share with us as well... Isn't that right, Arian?"

The only word that could have been used to describe Arian's expression was shock. His jaw dropped, and he went as pale as a ghost in the blink of an eye. When he began to fumble for his words, Jay's own eyes narrowed. She had thought there was something off about Arian for quite some time, but she hadn't ever wanted to get too deep into questioning him about it. After all, she had her fair share of secrets, and she knew that she would have been hypocritical to try and get him to tell the truth when she was averse to complete honesty about her past herself. 

Lana didn't seem to care about that in the slightest though. She knew what she wanted, and she was going to find a way to draw the truth out of both Jay and Arian no matter what it took. All Jay and Arian could do was stand there silently, neither one sure of how to answer Lana's inquiries. Was there even a way to respond to her? Jay couldn't help but wonder. 

Lana took a small step towards Arian, and her expression began to soften. "I want you both to understand that I'm not trying to hurt you by doing this," she started off by saying. "I want you to understand that this is a safe place. We're going to be working as a team for a long time yet, and I know that you're not going to be able to feel free as yourselves if you're hiding things all the time."

Jay gave a brief glance over to Arian, and she watched as he shifted his attention down to the ground as a way of ignoring the eyes of everyone around him focused squarely on his silhouette. Arian let out a sigh and shook his head. "I... Um... Lana, how much do you know?" he questioned. He seemed to have already given up on trying to put up a mask of being fine, and deflection seemed to be the farthest thing from his thought process. It almost surprised Jay how quickly he gave in, but she supposed that she shouldn't have been surprised given how Arian lacked confidence when anyone looked too close at him for too long. 

"Quite a bit," Lana answered with a hollow smile that overflowed with a strange sense of sadness. "I was able to pick up on it a while ago, but I didn't want to force you to say anything unless I had to. Still, all six of us are together now, and our search is finished. You knew that from the beginning, and so did I. I'm tired of acting like everything is still going, Arian."

Ronan's head tilted slightly to the side, and his expression was filled with legitimate curiosity that made Jay's heart twist in her chest. "I don't understand what you're trying to say here," He confessed. "Lana, how did you know so much? You know... Whatever it is you know, that is. I don't know exactly what it is that you're talking about, but..."

Lana sighed. "Since I'm a robot, I have the ability to sense the elements that can be found in a person. My sensors were muddled when we were in Cloudpeak because of Cryai's influence, but they've been as clear as can be ever since we left the place behind. I could tell it from the very beginning when I met the two of them... Arian and Jay have been hiding the full extent of their magic from us," she explained. 

"Come to think of it, you haven't ever told us what element you have, Jay," Ronan murmured, swallowing nervously at the realization. "But I guess that we're thinking about Arian right now... What's going on with you?"

Arian looked up to the gazes of everyone in the group before he sighed and shook his head. "I don't think that I can really keep it a secret anymore... I mean, it's not like it was going to stay hidden forever. It was only a matter of time before all of this came crashing down around me," he muttered. "Remember how Lana was telling us about a recent creation from the Fearbringers who we suspected was given life by Mersall?"

Jay already had a sneaking suspicion that she knew where this was going, and her stomach twisted in response. Arian let out a nervous laugh as a way of breaking through the tension, but it did little to calm the anxiety that hung in the air as heavy as lead. "That's not... That's not exactly true. It was another Lakinya that gave life to the creature in question, and... It was me," Arian replied. "The one that the Fearbringers made recently... The last immortal that we suspected was a walking contradiction... You're looking at him. Surprise?"

Jay forced herself to look down at the ground, hating how well all of the pieces came together. She always had a sneaking suspicion that there was more to Arian than met the eye, and that most certainly appeared to be the case with this new revelation. Despite appearing physically to be around her age, Arian always seemed to have something weathered and anxious to his gaze. Arian detested combat far more than she ever anticipated, and his nerves regarding it were most certainly tied in with his connection to the Fearbringers. 

"You have the elements that branch off from Mystic magic," Jay concluded as soon as she was able to force herself to speak once again. "You haven't shown it much because we haven't engaged in combat as much as one would have expected, but... It seems clear now. What element were you even given life through? What in the world happened?"

"It's... It's complicated, alright?" Arian finally told her. "I don't know how to describe it without making you all sit here for hours as I bounce through the truth. There's quite a bit of history to my existence, but I suppose that there's not really a way that I can avoid it. The truth is out there now, and I can't run away from it now."

"I suppose that it makes sense why you would want to hide something like that," Jubilee snorted. "You're not going to betray us. I can say that much conclusively. You don't have the same aura and militaristic strength that the modern Fearbringers do... Well, did. The war on Daragon is over, and you weren't there as far as I can tell. The Fearbringers who sided with Mersall are still struggling quite a bit for obvious reasons."

"Yeah," Arian replied with yet another nervous laugh. Just as before, it did little to actually break through the heavy tension hanging in the air. "I wanted to try and avoid talking about it if possible, but... Given that everything is coming out now, I can't really run away from it now. I'm a Hanilia, and I'm the fifth of the Skylian Mages. Would you look at that? Our little group was completed long before we even realized it, and there's no reason for us to keep searching... I'm sorry for keeping all of this a secret. I'll tell you everything. We're going to be working together from here on out, so it's the least that I can do."

"You aren't the only one who's been hiding things," Lana remarked, and Jay felt herself grow nauseous at the reminder that she was going to have to talk about her past as well. All eyes settled squarely on her, and Jay realized just how critical the gazes of Jubilee and Colt could be when they were adjusted in the proper way. "You say that you're the fifth of the Skylian Mages... But you aren't the last one."

"Of course," Jay muttered. She had known that this was coming the instant that Lana began to approach her about keeping too many things secret, but she didn't want to actually confront the issue. Jay wasn't ready to think about the past quite yet, and it was far from being a distant problem. Arian's past appeared to be far more buried than his lies of sixteen would have led her to believe, but Jay could still feel the fresh scars from what had happened to her. When she closed her eyes, it was as if the universe was forcing her to experience hell all over again, and she wasn't fond of the idea of having to explain such to her companions. 

Lana shook her head, and her eyes fell on the symbol on Jay's cheek. "I know that marking on your face, you know," she continued. "I've seen it before, as a matter of fact. I could feel something incredibly familiar the moment that we met... After all, I've seen your magic before. Some would dare to say that it never left this world in the first place. It's been present since the ancient days when Hyperion still walked the face of these planets."

"Quit talking in riddles, will you?" Jubilee suddenly cut in, and the irritation on her face was visible as she glared in Lana's direction. Jay would have almost laughed at the irony of Jubilee hating the secretive pattern of words if not for her own agitation in that instant. Jubilee had been alright with talking in such a way back when they were in the tavern, but all of that fell apart when Lana was the one behind it. Jay realized that Jubilee was likely upset because she no longer felt in control of the situation, but all she could do was make a brief mental note of it in that instant. After all, there were far more pressing issues than analyzing Jubilee's character, and she could feel the truth whispering over her shoulder, waiting to be released into the air at long last. It was far from being a pleasant feeling, but she couldn't escape it any longer than she already have.

Lana took in a grounding breath before offering a response. "You see... The symbol on her face happens to be the Mark of Skylox," she replied. "It's a symbol that you'll find on one who happens to be a reincarnation of a god. I believe that a member of the Clan Leaders currently bears the Mark of Soluna, and the two gods just so happened to be twins. Of course, that part is none of my business... But I can say exactly where her magic came from. It's easy to put the pieces together when you recognize the symbol and the last person that it was found on."

"Lyloc," Colt cut in. "The last person who had that symbol was Lyloc, and her sister Evangeline was the last one to possess the Mark of Soluna. Evangeline died a long time ago, but Lyloc was alive up until recently, up until Zelda of the Fearbringers decided to lead an attack on the palace where the Skylox Heroes lived."

"Lyloc's death certainly came as a shock to all of us," Lana continued. "But she continues to live on regardless. Her spirit might have disappeared from the realm of the living, but I can promise you solemnly and from the bottom of my heart that her magic still lives on. Jay here is living proof of that. Your magical signature is identical to what Lyloc's was, and I've been able to tell from the very beginning. You haven't spoken a word about what happened to you before you wound up as a member of the search party for the Skylian Mages, but I believe that it's rather easy to put the pieces together."

"Lana, why are you doing this?" Jay questioned. She didn't want to address anything else that was happening, and even though she could feel the confused and almost accusatory gazes of her companions locked squarely on her, Jay did her best to ignore them. 

"I believe that we should all be as honest with each other as possible. We're going to be working together for a long time yet, after all. We don't know how long this mission is going to last. Ronan, Jubilee, and I have already told you about everything that we've been through. Colt might as well have done the same earlier, and I'm sure that we'll be able to hear more from him as time goes on. I don't want you and Arian to keep hiding everything and leading us on a wild goose chase for people who have been standing right in front of us the whole time," Lana answered. "There are six Skylian Mages unlike what one would expect at a first glance. Five of us preside over the respective categories of elements found in the Galaxy of Hyperion, and the sixth carries the magic that was found in Lyloc's body up until her demise. It's no coincidence that you and Arian were told to find the rest of us. You were the two most likely to keep it all a secret."

Jay forced herself to look at the ground, unwilling to look at Lana any longer than she already had. She knew that Lana was right, but she didn't want to say anything if she could avoid it. The truth was about to crash down on her, threatening to bury her alive if she wasn't careful, and there was nothing that she could do to fix it. At this point, all she could hope for was damage control, and her efforts on such a front would ultimately be limited when push came to shove. 

"Well, I believe that we've spoken about this for long enough," Lana finally told the group's members. She sat down on the grass below and smoothed out her clothing before pressing her shoulders back into a perfect line. "Why don't you go on and tell us about what's going on with your pasts? I believe that it's time we all learn more about each other, and I think that this is the first step to us fully trusting one another as a team. We have a lot of work ahead of us, and this is a perfect place for us to start."

Jay didn't realize that she was on the grass alongside Lana until after her legs had already folded beneath her. Arian, Ronan, Jubilee, and Colt followed suit. Despite having just joined the party, Colt already seemed to understand the aura of the team rather well, and he remained quietly critical throughout the change of situation. Jay wished that she could be hearing more about him as opposed to spilling every little detail about herself, but she knew that she had long lost her say in the matter when she went into the search by trying to hide everything about who she was. 

"I guess that it's time for me to start talking, huh?" Arian finally said after the group had settled down. Unlike Jay, he seemed to be suffering under the full force of his own guilty conscience, and he almost seemed ready to get it off his shoulders and into the world at large. He began to mess anxiously with the hem of his shirt simply because he wanted to give his hands something to do. 

"Yeah," Lana agreed. She smiled kindly in his direction, and Jay wondered how someone so caring could simultaneously be so harsh in her efforts to reach an honest understanding. Deep down, she knew that it would be for the best in the long run, but Jay still found herself unsettled where Lana was concerned. She hoped that the feeling would pass with time, but she supposed that it didn't matter for the time being. She was going to listen to Arian's story about everything that he had gone through, and hopefully, it would offer her the motivation she needed to be honest as well. That was all that she could pray for, but there was no way of saying for sure until after everything had been said and sealed away. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update late oops
> 
> -Digital


	27. Chapter Twenty-Six: Entrusted Truths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jay and Arian both share the truth found in the past.

Arian took in a grounding breath before he began to explain. "I lived with the Fearbringers for a long time... I was created around the time that Mersall came to power in the group. Their numbers were skyrocketing because of his promise that anyone could be part of his army. He wanted nothing more than to create a few incredible soldiers that would be able to help him conquer Daragon. This was back before he started his invasion of Daragon, but he was trying to prepare to the best of his ability," he said. "I was his first attempt at making a perfect soldier."

"I see," Jubilee commented, crossing her arms. "The two of us aren't so different then, if you think about it. I mean, I was created by an older generation of Fearbringers that had good intentions even if they pushed me too far. You were made by a new generation of Fearbringers that didn't realize what they were being dragged into. There was no dramatic story behind the ones who dragged me into this, but it seems like that's where we're set apart."

Arian nodded. "Yeah... The one who gave me power and life was a spirit. His name was Odysseus, and he wanted nothing more than to find a place in the land of the living. That was where this had come from, as a matter of fact. He was trying to find a body, and Mersall longed to make a fighter who was powerful enough to give him a physical form for him to inhabit," he continued. 

Jay resisted the urge to shudder at his words. She didn't say anything, but she could tell that everyone was wondering why she was so tense all of a sudden. Of course they had noticed. Given that she was one of the people being called out for this situation, they had to keep an eye on her. They all trusted each other, but the quiet curiosity still bothered her. Jay wanted to curl up and hide away from the rest of the world, but she supposed that this was what had gotten her into this situation in the first place. 

"I was with the Fearbringers for a few years since I didn't know any better. I didn't exactly have years of youth because I was roughly this age when I was created. Mages age slower than most people, and since I was introduced to life with the body of a teenager, I was given the chance to keep this appearance for a really long time to make up for the early years that I had missed out on," Arian told the members of the group. 

Jay winced at the realization. That was why Arian had looked so exhausted when they first met. She had been confident that there was something more to him, and there was no way that he was simply sixteen the way that he had claimed. This explanation made much more sense, though the tragic pull behind it wasn't lost on her. She could only imagine how awful the Fearbringers had been to work with for someone like Arian who hadn't been given much of a choice in the matter. 

Then again, she supposed that Arian was far from being the only one who was dragged into the group without their consent. In fact, there were many others who had been born into the cult either during the war or before it had started. That left them forced to fight for a cause when they hadn't ever been given the chance to understand the rest of the world at large. It was a dreadful thing to think about, so Jay did her best to shove it out of her mind. The last thing that she wanted to do was get distracted when this was meant to be about Arian. 

"I eventually had enough of it. I wasn't even given the chance to fight out on the battlefield, instead only training constantly. Mersall didn't want to risk anything happening to me because he needed me to be used as a vessel for Odysseus. I got sick of it, so I ran away as soon as the chance presented itself. I don't even know if the Fearbringers looked for me, if I'm being honest. I was in hiding for quite some time because I knew above all else that I just couldn't go back to that no matter what happened," Arian went on. 

"And then you wound up as part of our group... You were basically immortal because you were an artificial existence that had been given power by a source with too much magic for one person," Lana concluded. "What happened after you left the Fearbringers? Were you just in hiding for a long time before you left it behind when you concluded it was safe?"

Arian nodded. "Yeah. I started to crawl out of my hole about five years ago since I realized that they weren't looking for me anymore. I heard about Zelda Artem, a legendary soldier who Mersall was molding for the sake of meeting his own goals. I realized a bit late that she was the one who was replacing me in his attempts to resurrect Odysseus, but I knew that I wouldn't be able to go back to helping her. I didn't want to fight anymore, so I simply kept as far away from the battlefield as possible. Before this happened, I didn't think that I was ever going to fight again."

"But then you didn't exactly have a choice because we were attacked," Jay muttered. She couldn't blame Arian in the slightest for the choices that he had made, and they certainly made sense given what she knew about him. He was experienced with combat, but it wasn't because he had chosen to be. He was exhausted when it came to matters of battle, but he held far more experience than the average person. Arian himself felt like a collection of contradictions that Jay was only just starting to understand. 

"Exactly... I don't even know if Mersall realized what I was, I have to say. I was born from the element of Chaos since that was the power that Odysseus had inherently, and he thought that was the only element that I held. It wasn't until after I left the Fearbringers behind that I realized that I didn't fall into only that category. I have all five types of magic that branch off from Mystic, but I prefer to only use Mystic when possible. It's easier for me that way, and it doesn't remind me of all the training that I had to put up with when I was working for Mersall still," Arian said. He watched the ground with a soberingly honest expression, and Jay could feel a powerful pull of sympathy grabbing onto her heart the longer that she watched him. 

"When we met... You said that you weren't a Mind mage when we met. Did you read my mind in order to hear about the dream? Did you really get the same message that I did from Lyloc, or were you simply following me for some other reason?" Jay questioned as her mind was cast back to the first time that she met Arian. His mentions of his magic had reminded her of what had taken place when they first crossed paths, and she had to admit that his words bothered her. She had to hear the truth from his lips. 

Arian shook his head. "No, I really did have the same dream, and Lyloc pushed me to find you and help out with the search. I didn't really have anything better to do. Everybody else was wrapped up with other obligations, but I wasn't doing anything aside from wandering the realm. I was just trying to keep out of the attention of the Fearbringers. I couldn't go back to that no matter what happened. Trust me when I say that Lyloc contacted me on her own terms. I didn't read your memories. Besides, why would I want to do that randomly? I haven't worked for the Fearbringers in well over a decade since I left them behind so long ago to pursue my own ventures."

Jay nodded her understanding. She had to admit that she had expected as much, but it never hurt to get a bit of confirmation. "Alright," she murmured. It sounded as if that was all she needed to know about Arian's story. She was happy to have access to this new information, but she wasn't anywhere near as joyful at the prospect that it was her turn to explain what had taken place with her before Lyloc called upon her. 

"Why don't you tell us what you've gone through, Jay?" Lana questioned. She had noticed that Arian was finished as well, and she wasn't about to let Jay get away without explaining the past. Her gaze was friendly, but something about it was stern enough to tell Jay that she had to be honest. 

Then again, Jay wouldn't have been able to lie even if she wanted to. Somehow, blatantly spitting on the past didn't sit well with her even after she had avoided it for so long. She had been cornered into telling the truth, and she wasn't going to back down and leave it to rot despite her other ideas of what was right or wrong. She was simply going to have to be honest for better or worse. 

"Alright," Jay murmured. She watched the grass in front of her feet intently, figuring that it was better than making eye contact with any of the Skylian Mages watching her every move. She didn't think that she would be strong enough to watch them directly as she told the story. "First off... I want you to know that this is my first time telling this full tale ever. That's important to know, I suppose. Lyloc told me to keep it a secret for as long as I could manage, but I don't think that's feasible anymore."

Jay sighed. Nobody said anything in response, and she knew that it was her cue to keep speaking. "I wasn't born in the Galaxy of Hyperion. In truth, I grew up on Earth. Well, not exactly 'grew up', but... I was born there. Unfortunate circumstances brought me here to Hyperion. I was abducted by some mages, and I wound up here at the start of the war between Daragon and the Fearbringers. Lyloc wound up saving me from the Fearbringers responsible, and she decided to take me in, but... There was a bit of a twist to it. I didn't have any magic at the time."

"You have magic now though," Arian concluded. "I can see that pretty easily. You prefer using a sword, yeah, but it's clear that you have some kind of power. I can feel that there's quite a bit behind you too."

"You could certainly say that," Jay snorted. "I grew up with the Skylox Heroes. Lyloc raised me around all of them, and I spent time with them constantly. They taught me how to fight even though I didn't have any notable magic. I used a sword because that was my favorite weapon out of the bunch. I didn't have magic for most of my life. I didn't gain power until the past year or so. That's the approximation, anyways."

"What changed for you to get your magic?" Ronan questioned. His voice was so full of curiosity that it almost hurt to hear. She hated that she had kept the truth from him at all as soon as she heard his voice even though she had been convinced for so long that she was doing the right thing. 

"The Skylox Heroes fell," Jay said simply with a loose shrug. "They were defeated, and their souls were sent spiraling into the afterlife with no way of being held to the land of the living. Lyloc lingered for just a while longer, and she gave me her magic. She held immense power, and she merged her incredibly powerful magic with my lack of strength. I only had a tiny fraction of magic when I was born, but Lyloc gave me something strong enough to allow me to become a warrior of immense power."

Jay hesitated afterwards, and a sigh left her lips. "You see, I... I fought in the war between Daragon and the Fearbringers. I joined the war just before the end of the conflict on the side of the Draconic Superiors and Clan Leaders. I didn't exactly use my true name at the time though. I hid my identity because I figured that would be the best option for anyone. Instead, I went by the alias of 'the Silver Knight', and I only told a single person about my past. Then again, I suppose I had to... After all, he was my twin brother."

"I should have known," Jubilee muttered. "You look almost exactly like one of the Clan Leaders, but I passed it off as coincidence at the time. I didn't think that there was any possible way that you two could have been connected, but now I see that I was wrong in jumping to that conclusion."

Jay nodded. "Yeah... He was a Clan Leader, and we should have been part of the Clan Leader group together, but I wasn't made a member of the team. Instead, another destiny was set out for me, and that canceled out my strength as a Clan Leader. I guess that Hyperion knew that I would wind up taking over Lyloc's magic in the aftermath of her death. The mark on my face is the symbol of Skylox, a sign that I hold her ancient strength. Only those incredibly well-versed in magical symbols would be aware of what it means, and I think that's most certainly for the best."

"And that's why Cryai targeted you... He knew that there was something going on with that symbol, and he wanted to capitalize on it if he had the chance," Arian realized. "So, just to make sure that I have all of this straight, you were born on Earth with a very small amount of magic. You were abducted by Fearbringers who were probably trying to interfere with the Clan Leaders who were going to one day fight to defeat them. Lyloc saved you when you were young, and you grew up alongside the Skylox Heroes. When they fell in battle, Lyloc gave you her power, and you became one of us. Do I have that right?"

"You do," Jay concluded. "That's the short version of it, at the very least... I hated talking about the past. I didn't think that I had any right to discuss it when I was the only one who got away from the Battle of Nadia. All of the Skylox Heroes died because of the Fearbringers striking when we weren't paying attention. I felt so guilty even though there was nothing I could have done to change it."

"Let me guess... You're related to Jayler Rose," Jubilee said, earning her a nod from Jay. "Ironic how similar your names are. I doubt that Jay was your name when you were first born. I somehow doubt that the same title carried over across worlds."

"You would be correct in both of your assumptions," Jay confirmed. "I guess it was just the coincidence of a lifetime that we wound up with such similar names, but there's nothing we can do to change it now... I haven't seen him in quite some time. He hasn't ever even seen my face, as a matter of fact. I've been hiding my true identity for a while. After what happened to the Skylox Heroes, I didn't think it was safe for me to advertise my existence."

"I remember hearing about the Silver Knight, you know," Lana remarked. Jay could already tell where this was going, and she glanced down to the ground. "I'm willing to guess that this is where you come in regarding the story of the war between Daragon and the Fearbringers. You fought as the Silver Knight, and that's how you were tied in with what happened."

Jay nodded. "Yeah... And you would be right in thinking that. It's what I thought would be for the best, especially considering that Zelda Artem was going to be involved with the war. I thought that it would be better if I hid everything from the world at large. I didn't know what I was going to do when I saw her again... And I hated the idea of her recognizing me. You know, assuming that she even knew who I was."

"I didn't realize that any Skylox Heroes survived what happened, but I guess that you're not even a Skylox Hero," Jubilee muttered. "You're a Skylian Mage. You were simply being cared for by Lyloc, but that's an important distinction to make. It allowed you to survive when everything else began to fall apart."

"Your elements are directly transferred from Lyloc, so you possess each of the magical types," Colt muttered. "That's what I believe you're trying to imply, at the very least. In the beginning, every type of Hanilia consisted of a single person who had every element. When reincarnations took place, everything began to divide off, and that was how we wound up with, for example, six Clan Leaders. Your powers are directly from Lyloc, so it's like you skipped the reincarnation cycle entirely. Skylian Mages are the exception to the reincarnation rule, as a matter of fact."

"You're right," Jay told him. "Skylian Mages don't apply because they're chosen based off being immortal. That's one of the prerequisites. From there, five elements are given to each member of the group. I'm a reincarnation from Lyloc in the loosest standpoint. She merged with me years after I was born, but she did give me her magic, so that somewhat counts, I suppose."

"How experienced are you when it comes to using your specific types of magic?" Ronan questioned. He understood the heaviness of the situation, but he didn't seem to want to contribute to it if it could have been avoided. He watched Jay eagerly, and she couldn't help but wish that she could see that soft smile of his far more often. It certainly brought a new lightness to her heart. 

Jay hesitated before shaking her head. "If you want me to be honest, I'm not experienced with it in the slightest. I haven't had enough time to do that sort of thing. My magic was so minute and inconsequential from birth that I couldn't really learn how to use it with the help of the Skylox Heroes. I didn't actually gain the ability to fight with magic until after Lyloc gifted me with her magic, but... I haven't had the chance to practice it for understandable reasons. Too much has been happening in the past few months. Besides, I'm already talented enough with a sword, and that's what I care about more, if I'm being honest."

"So, our little group has already been completed. I'm glad to hear it," Jubilee announced as she glanced out over the other Skylian Mages. "I wish I could say that I knew what we were supposed to do next. Do we even have any plans on what to do from here?" She paused as her gaze settled on Colt. "We should probably help to get a certain someone here acquainted with how we run things as a team too. I don't think it would hurt at all."

Colt sighed at the sudden attention before tearing his eyes away from Jubilee. "I don't know much about what's happening aside from what I've already told you. If we want to find any particular bits of information, our best bet would be to go to the hub of Hanilia that's currently being set up by the Draconic Superiors and Clan Leaders. Chances are that there are at lest a few people there who would be able to answer the most pressing of our questions, and it sounds like a good place to start if nothing else."

Jay was silent for a moment at his words, knowing logically that he was right but not wanting to believe it. There wasn't a way for them to figure out what was happening without stepping out of their comfort zone, but she still didn't know if she liked the idea of going back to the castle. Jay had gone overnight when she couldn't sleep one evening to visit Jayler, but she only managed to distract herself because she was focused on seeing him above all else. She wasn't sure if she would fare quite so well when they next left. 

"I don't know about that," Jubilee confessed after a moment of hesitation. "I didn't want to bring it up, but I found something while we were trying to find you, Colt. I don't think that it's something that we want to talk about, but... Whatever. I guess that I've already dug this hole, and the least I can do is follow through with it and say what's going on in the first place."

Jay felt her heart sink into her stomach and then her feet after Jubilee turned to face her. "The Fearbringers have allied themselves with the Draconic Superiors and Clan Leaders, and they're currently living in the castle as far as I can tell. I didn't think that it would wind up being too particularly important, but I guess that it's pretty damn relevant now. Sorry for not talking about it sooner," Jubilee told her. 

Jay fell quiet once again, and she concentrated on the ground instead of focusing on anyone around her. She could feel their eyes watching her every move, not that she could particularly blame any of them for watching her so carefully. If anyone was going to react negatively to the Fearbringers moving into the castle with the Clan Leaders and Draconic Superiors, it was going to be her. In fact, Jay wasn't even sure if she liked the idea of the latter two groups being there after all of the history that the castle had allocated over the years. 

"I... I don't mind. If this is what we have to do, then we'll just have to get it over with. I'll get over it if I have to," Jay replied, unsure of what else she could even say. She had managed to put aside her previous reservations to fight alongside the Fearbringers during the war on Daragon, and it seemed as if she was going to have to do that once again, as much as she hated to admit it. There were more important matters than her own baggage and anger towards Zelda and the other Fearbringers, and Jay understood the importance of prioritizing business over her own internalized hatred. 

"In that case, it sounds to me like we've got our next generation," Arian remarked with a nervous smile as he rose to his feet. Everything about him still seemed rather shaky despite the fact that he had spent so much time sitting down. Jay suspected that it was partially because of the emotional knock back that came with revealing so much of his past at once. As far as she could tell, Arian hadn't discussed what had happened to him since leaving the Fearbringers either. 

In a way, they were rather similar, Jay observed. They had been involved with Hanilia groups because of the magical prowess they either already possessed or would one day have a handle on. They detested discussing the past because of what had happened to them, and they did their best to ignore the lingering emotions left behind by what they had endured. Arian hid it all behind a smile while Jay masked it with stoicism. They had been through an incredible amount of suffering despite their young ages as well. Jay couldn't help but feel that her friendship with Arian was only going to grow stronger the longer that they were together because of the notable connections between their experiences despite the differing environments. 

Lana was the next one to rise to her feet, and she let out a small sigh as she smiled in the direction of both Arian and Jay. "I'm glad that we had this discussion. It's better that we talk everything out now than go on a wild chase trying to track down the other Skylian Mages without realizing that they were right in front of us the whole time, you know?" she asked. 

As much as Jay hated to admit it, Lana had a point, and she nodded to herself as confirmation. "Yeah," she whispered. There was still a knot in her stomach that came with this sort of engagement with others. Jay hadn't been vulnerable this way since she was with the Skylox Heroes outside of her brief connections with Jayler. She felt closely tied with her brother because of the blood that she shared with him, and this was only deepened since he was the primary person who offered her a connection back to the place of her birth. He was the only one who had been able to breach her defenses since she was with the Skylox Heroes, and it was strange for her to go away from that so suddenly. 

Still, she didn't exactly hate it. The nervous high that came with talking about such intense subjects remained notable and prominent, but Jay had to confess that she did feel better about not bottling everything up constantly. It was a new experience, but she wasn't opposed to it in the slightest. In fact, she was sure that it was only a matter of time before she was able to take a step back and enjoy what she had done. This was a significant step in the right direction for her, after all, and Jay wasn't about to downplay that after all that she had gone through to reach such an important moment. 

Jay looked at the other members of her little ragtag group, and she found herself smiling despite her initial expectations. She hadn't been in a team like this in quite some time. When she was staying with the Skylox Heroes, she had the ability to connect with a large group of other people, and it had been the perfect place for her to call home. Even when Jay moved on and spent time with the Draconic Superiors, Clan Leaders, and Fearbringers during the war on Daragon, she never truly felt like she was at home. There was a strange divide that she didn't know how to describe as far as the two situations were concerned, but she suspected that it had something to do with time. 

However, none of that seemed to matter as she looked at the other Skylian Mages standing in the clearing alongside her. For a moment, after everything that she had endured, Jay felt like she was home. It was something that she hadn't experienced in a long time, and she rather enjoyed it. In a way, she was almost happy that Lana had pushed her as hard as she did. Jay wouldn't have been able to go on lying forever, and she deserved to be able to talk about her issues without being afraid of the consequences. The others had all opened up to her, and Jay knew that she could trust them. After all, they were members of the same Hanilia faction, so they were going to have to learn how to get along. 

Still, Jay didn't think that was going to be an issue. If they were already as connected as they were after such a short period of time, they were only going to get closer from that point forward. She smiled to herself at the thought of finally having found a place in the world to enjoy and embrace without a scrap of shame. She deserved this, and she knew that the others did as well. They had come from all walks of life, immortals of some kind or another, but they were brought together by a common cause. 

Jay couldn't help but wonder if she fell into the second category regarding the lifespans of the Skylian Mages. She wasn't exactly selected to be a Hanilia though traditional means, so it wouldn't have surprised her if she was the exception on that front as well. Still, it wasn't something that she needed to concern herself with as far as Jay was concerned. It was something for her to consider years in the future when she actually began to show signs of swaying to one direction or the other regarding immortality. 

All that mattered to her was that moment. At long last, she had found the ability to be honest with the people around her, something that she hadn't even imagined was possible for years on end. She was beyond happy with the concept, to say the least. Jay smiled to herself as she glanced out over the other members of the group once again. She had finally found a place to belong after roaming for so long. Even if the Skylox Heroes were gone, Jay had found her home. She was alright without needing to rely on them as much as she once had, and she valued that far more than she expected. 

Jay let out a small breath as she braced herself for what was to come. The next set of actions involving reaching out to the other Hanilia groups wasn't going to be easy, but she was going to have to follow through regardless. The Fearbringers were going to have to be an afterthought compared to the coming mission. There were too many important things to focus on for Jay to get caught up in her past grudges. After all, the future had to be her first priority, and she was determined to prove such to the world at large. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaa Silver Knight!
> 
> -Digital


	28. Chapter Twenty-Seven: Frozen Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Skylian Mages arrive at the palace at long last.

All things considered, the palace really didn't look that much different all those weeks later. 

Jay and the rest of the Skylian Mages had ultimately come to the same conclusion when they finished their discussion for the day. The sky overhead was starting to darken, and Jay couldn't help but wonder how much time had exactly passed while she was explaining the truth of her existence to her companions. They agreed to spend the night recuperating before the next day, and Jay was more than happy with this. It gave her a bit more time to prepare herself emotionally for what was about to happen. 

She was sitting in the room that she was sharing with Lana and Jubilee for the might. It wasn't anywhere near as nice as some of the previous hotels that they had stayed in, but it was still serviceable, and Jay couldn't help but wonder if perhaps it would be the last hotel that she was in for quite some time. After all, what reason would she have to check out hotels after she moved into the castle itself? She would be able to have her own room, and all missions would likely operate out of that one space if her assumptions were correct. At the very least, that was how it had worked when she was with the Skylox Mages, and she was hoping that it wasn't all that different from what she was used to. 

Jay's gaze was locked squarely on the palace that waited on the other side of town. Its towers spiraled into the sky, and it was easily visible from her place on the bed in the hotel room. She curled her knees up to her chest and simply stared as the dusk sky shifted color overhead. Jubilee and Lana were taking care of other business (brushing their hair and navigating information banks respectively), and Jay took this as a moment to think about how much everything had changed seemingly in the blink of an eye. 

It was still hard to believe to her that she was going to be heading back. She had snuck into the castle many times in the past before the Draconic Superiors decided to turn it into a base for all future Hanilia activity. Jay had left the castle alone for the most part, unable to stay there for long enough to make a significant change. Even if she did want to alter the appearance of the building, she wouldn't have been able to force herself to do it. Thinking about it only felt like erasing history, and that wasn't something that Jay thought she could stomach. 

In fact, Jay wasn't entirely very fond of the idea of others doing it either. She wanted it to remain trapped in the past, a sign of what had once been when the Skylox Mages were still alive. Instead, it was being transformed into something more useful in modern times, and as much as Jay appreciated that, she remained somewhat uncomfortable with the concept. She already missed the past more than she could ever hope to explain, and she wasn't sure about how she was going to feel when she had to go into the castle the following day and see that everything had been changed. 

Jay shook the thought off to the best of her ability, though that was far easier said than done. She let out a sigh and closed her eyes slowly, trying to force herself to concentrate on something a bit less taxing emotionally. So much had happened all at once, and it felt like she had to take herself through the steps of everything that had taken place in the past twenty-four hours just to make sure that she knew it was real and not some figment of an upset imagination. 

There was a lot going on, to say the least. Jay was happy that she had opened up about the past since it gave her a clear path that she could use to start moving on, but she still struggled with the idea of releasing her past burdens. The Skylox Heroes would undoubtedly want the best for her, but at the same time, Jay feared that she was almost betraying them by moving away from the past. It was an irrational fear, and Jay was fully aware of this, but that didn't stop the insecurities from seeping in through the cracks in her logical prowess. 

Then there was the matter of seeing Jayler again. She had promised him ages ago that she would be meeting with him again in the future, this time with the armor off, but Jay wasn't sure if she was ready for it. Her visit to him previously had been on a whim, a byproduct of exhaustion and a need to feel as if everything was alright. With Jayler, things sort of made sense. It was a difficult phenomenon to describe, but Jay almost felt as if she was at home when Jayler was present. It made coping with the messy world at large just a little bit easier, and Jay was more than willing to accept any bonuses that she could get on that front. 

Earth was still a mystery to her, Jay had to confess. Part of her wondered if such a fact would ever change. She was bound to return to the place of her birth sooner or later, but Jay had no idea what she was supposed to expect when she did. After all, she was more used to the Galaxy of Hyperion and how everything functioned there. Her upbringing in Hyperion had been unorthodox, and that wasn't even comparing her life as a teen and child to what happened with children on Earth. 

Jay was positive that there were still people out there who remembered her and wanted to learn more about her. That much was something that she at least wanted to believe even if Earth was a looming uncertainty that she chose to ignore most of the time. Her parents, for example, had to at least know a little bit about her. Even if she had vanished before she could truly form a connection with the, Jay liked to believe that perhaps they thought about her every once in a while. Even just a few whispers late at night would be fine with her. 

In a way, confronting Jayler as herself meant more than simply seeing him again. It meant acknowledging that she was going to have to find a new future on Earth and Hyperion after spending years blocking out the first of the two choices for her home. It meant going back to Earth and seeing the parents that had spent years missing her and pretending that they hadn't lost a child to such unfortunate circumstances. It meant trying to become a normal girl for at least a little while despite the innate magic that flowed through her blood thanks to the one figure who had acted like a mother to her throughout her younger years. 

Jay let out a sigh and did her best to focus on something else. For all she knew, the Clan Leaders wouldn't even be in the castle the next day. She couldn't tell if that was something she wanted to have happen or not. She would undoubtedly run into them sooner or later. It was just a matter of time, and Jay wasn't foolish enough to believe otherwise. Still, she didn't know if it would be for better or worse if she saw them immediately. She would worry about their future reactions less if she just saw them right off the bat, but at the same time, that meant sitting down with Jayler for a long time and explaining everything that had to do with her past. 

She had told Jayler quite a bit, and he was the only person who Jay had ever been honest with about all that she had endured. It was strange to say that everything felt right around him, but that was simply the truth of the matter. Jay had explained that she was part of a different Hanilia faction due to some divine interference perhaps done on Lyloc's part. She was going to have to get more into detail this time around than she had previously, but at least she would have the Skylian Mages there to back her up when the time did come. That had to count for something, and Jay was going to accept their assistance if she could possibly get her hands on it. 

Jay was going to have to get used to being around them as well. Their group wasn't exactly what she had expected to embrace when she first lost the Skylox Heroes, but she couldn't go back after how far she had come. She had done so much trying to pull them together, and Jay knew that it was just a matter of time before they created their own perfect dynamic. In fact, she liked to think that she already got along pretty well with most of them even though Colt was still a bit detached by comparison to the other teammates. 

Jay's gaze shifted over to Lana's direction next, and her expression softened unexpectedly. She had to say that she was happy that Lana had pushed her to be honest with everything that had happened, and Jay hadn't ever thought that she would say something like that. She was glad that she had finally confessed what her past involved after holding it inside for too many moons to count. Jay had blocked out all thoughts of speaking about what she had been through far too long ago, but she was starting to move past it. Jay knew that it would take a bit more time to fully process everything that had taken place, but she at least had a support system, and that was an important first step to take. 

She would have been lying if she said that she always appreciated Lana's methods. In fact, it felt pretty obvious that she wasn't fond of it in the slightest at the beginning. Jay was glad that she had followed through with it despite her previous doubts, and she hoped that the honest relationship that she had established with the Skylian Mages maintained itself well into the future. She knew that she would come to enjoy being around them with time, and this was only the first step for her to take out of many that would lead her in the right direction. 

Jay shook it off as she laid down on the pillow off to her side. She hadn't realized how tired she was until after her cheek made contact with the soft material, and her eyes slipped shut without any command from Jay herself. She didn't bother trying to stop herself from sleeping, knowing that she was going to need as much rest as possible for the meeting with other Hanilia the following day. It would be for the best if she tried to get as much stress off her shoulders in the meantime, and sleep sounded far better than Jay was willing to admit openly. 

The last thing she wondered before slipping into slumber completely was if she would see her brother again the following day, but when she lacked answers, she allowed the realm of dreams to take her into its loving grasp. 

~~~~~

Jayler stretched out on his stomach in his bedroom on Earth, and his feet kicked mindlessly through the air behind him as he looked at his phone. All of the constant activity on Hyperion left him with little time to simply decompress, and he was too tired from the consistent running around to bother with something physical. Besides, scrolling through social media did at least a little something to help him relax. Even if the news online was unpleasant, at least it didn't require much thought. As long as his thumb could swipe across the screen, everything would be fine. 

He was scheduled to go to Hyperion the following day, and Jayler was admittedly excited about it even though his trips to the other world had been growing more frequent as of late. It just brought a new sense of excitement that he loved more and more each time. The rest of the Clan Leaders seemed to enjoy it as well, and Jayler always smiled when he saw how happy they were about going to the other world. What did he have to complain about? Plus, it gave him more time to stoke the fire that lived within. 

That was another thing that he often did to decompress after a long day. His flares still weren't anything impressive, but Jayler loved seeing the way that the flames danced in the palm of his hand as he watched them with curiosity gleaming in his eyes. He had heard that magic could only reach impressive levels on Earth at the highest transformation of Hisero. It was something that most of the Draconic Superiors had achieved, and a majority of the Fearbringers were either there or on the way. Hisero mages were easily able to call upon their power even without the need to transform, so Jayler hadn't seen them in their other forms quite as much. His magic at the Syllix level felt almost sad by comparison, but Jayler chose to not allow it to get to him. It was enough for him, and that was all that mattered. 

Jayler's fingers continued to scroll through the social media site that he had chosen for the night until a notification appeared on his phone. When he checked, Jayler could see that it was from Luke. He adjusted his position atop one of his particularly fluffy pillows so that he would be able to see what it said and respond. 

_"You should get some rest soon. We have a lot of work ahead of us."_

Jayler resisted the urge to let out a laugh at Luke's words. Of course Luke would be the one to keep him on the right track. Luke had always been one of the most responsible members of the group, and that was certainly saying something given that he had Gemini and Ocean as competition. Chances were that Luke had seen Jayler was still online through social media just before he was planning to head to sleep. 

Jayler had to confess that Luke had a point, and he typed out a quick response saying that he was going to head to sleep soon before turning his phone off and turning the device facedown. When he didn't get a reply from Luke, Jayler concluded that the redhead had likely gone to sleep, and he supposed that he should have followed that example. Luke was right when he said that there was still a lot for them to do, especially with the recent influx of information involving the mysterious Alba character being another member of the Lakinya. 

Jayler's mind was left racing at the idea of Alba acting as yet another obstacle in the near future. He didn't like the concept in the slightest. The Lakinya of Ice had been creating false life forms that were causing issues for other people, and if what Tuila said was to be believed (which Jayler was sure that it was), then Alba had been involved with locking down an entire town through the extended use of their false creations. That made Jayler feel sick to his stomach, but he had to still admit that it felt like a step above what had happened with Mersall. 

Back during the war against the Fearbringers, Mersall had been able to control an entire army of manipulated soldiers without any issues. That wasn't the case with Alba since the people that they were fighting against weren't even real lifeforms to begin with. That was at least one small weight off Jayler's conscience, though he got the feeling that he would still wind up debating the morality of fighting against the fake creations when the time came. 

At the very least, he didn't have to think about it in that moment. There were other topics for him to focus on, and Jayler was more than happy to embrace him. The next day would be yet another chance for him to spend time at the castle with the other Clan Leaders, and he was looking forward to it. Nothing lifted his spirits quite like going to Hyperion. 

Of course, in order to reach that point, he was going to have to sleep first, so Jayler forced himself to bring his thought process to a halt. Everything in his mind was a hazy blur, but he still did his best to shut it down. As long as he was able to get some rest, then everything would be alright. The next day was going to be peaceful as far as he could tell. The Alba situation was under control as far as Jayler was aware, and he was going to place his faith in his companions that everything would be okay from that point on. After all, it was all that he could really do, and he wasn't about to let it go. 

~~~~~

Tuila felt sick. 

It was hard to truly describe where the emotion came from, but Tuila felt as if something was wrong despite her knowledge that there wasn't anything out of the ordinary. She had paced through the castle at least three times within the span of an hour trying to pick up on anything that could have been bothering her so much, but she still hadn't managed to pin down any details. It was driving her up a wall, and Tuila wasn't sure if she could take much more of this. 

Tuila had learned to trust her instincts a long time ago. That was all she truly could do, in all honesty. They had saved her life on countless occasions during the war, and Tuila wasn't about to ignore them simply for the sake of her own convenience. If she felt like something was wrong, then she had to trust it. That was easier said than done given the clear evidence that there was nothing strange taking place, but Tuila tried anyways. 

She glanced out the window and allowed the cool air of the morning to blast her in the face. The Clan Leaders had arrived less than half an hour before, and Tuila had sent them off to take care of some other mission. She couldn't even remember what her instructions to them had been since she was so distracted at the time. Tuila didn't know if they noticed that something was off about her, but she wasn't in the mood to investigate it either. 

Tuila continued to lean out the window for a moment longer, land she relished in the perfection of the chill. Her hair rustled gently, and she let out a sigh to try and ground herself against the whirling world around her. Tuila shook her head and took a step away, forcing herself to focus on the task at hand. She still had to figure out what was going on in the castle, after all, and she couldn't get distracted. 

_Look outside._

There was that gut instinct again. Tuila decided to follow its advice, and she saw that there was a small group of people walking up to the front of the castle. For the most part, the local townspeople ignored the palace, almost seeming to think of it as a bad omen. Tuila had heard some people say that they thought it was haunted after what had happened to the Skylox Heroes months prior. Tuila didn't believe the rumors, and she personally enjoyed the way that the castle was private despite the large numbers of people nearby. 

If there were people trying to get into the building, then something had to be happening. Tuila didn't recognize them, so she decided to investigate on her own. She couldn't simply let in unfamiliar figures. That would be a recipe for disaster. The castle was meant to be a defensive stronghold, and she didn't think that it would be anywhere near as powerful when it came to fending off threats from the inside. 

Tuila's walk to the front of the castle was quick and purposeful. When she arrived at her destination, she opened the door and glanced over the newcomers who were about to knock. Her gaze remained narrow and stern as she attempted to figure out just who she was speaking to. 

The first thing that Tuila noticed was the person at the center of the group. It was a young woman who looked almost identical to Jayler. There was a marking on her cheek, and Tuila knew exactly what it was. She was more than familiar when it came to magical symbols and markings, and Tuila knew fully well that it was the symbol of Skylox, the opposite to the Mark of Soluna that lived on the back of Jayler's neck. 

The pieces slid into place with incredible ferocity, and Tuila's eyes went wide with surprise for a brief moment before she shook her head, trying to dismiss the idea. The girl couldn't have possibly been the Silver Knight, right? Nobody had seen the Silver Knight in ages aside from Jayler, and Tuila found it somewhat hard to believe that the girl wouldn't suddenly show herself without her armor or a mask after all that time on her own. 

And yet, despite her doubts, Tuila knew better than to jump to such a conclusion right off the bat. The evidence was pretty damn incriminating, and it said loud and clear that this girl was the Silver Knight. This wasn't how Tuila had been expecting the day to go, but she knew that she couldn't complain. After all, she had been waiting for answers for ages by this point, and it was better that they came unexpectedly rather than not at all. 

"Silver Knight," Tuila said simply to the girl, choosing to not yet acknowledge the other members of the group. "I didn't expect to see you here today."

"It was a spur of the moment decision," the girl responded with a light smile. "It's been too long since we saw each other. Last time that we crossed paths, I believe that you were upset with me for hiding as much information as I did. Now, you can see everything. What do you think?"

Tuila's eyes narrowed. She didn't like how open and familiar the Silver Knight was. It was a stark contrast from what she was used to from the Silver Knight when she was wearing her armor and helmet, but Tuila knew that she didn't exactly have room to be picky. She could get answers in a way that she didn't expect or she could keep from getting them at all. The choice seemed pretty damn clear as far as Tuila was concerned. 

"State your names and intentions," Tuila said after a brief pause as she looked over the rest of the group. She could sense powerful magic coming form all of them, and Tuila couldn't help but wonder just what secrets were lurking beneath the surface. Something told her that there was more to all of them than what first met the eye. 

It didn't take long for names to be explained, though the second half of Tuila's instructions were left until after introductions had taken place. The Silver Knight's true name was Jay Xanfall, and that was the first thing that Tuila learned. As for the other five mages, their names were Lana, Ronan, Jubilee, Colt, and Arian. Details were left out, but Tuila didn't particularly mind it for the time being. All that she wanted to do was watch the Silver Knight, or Jay, as she had come to call herself. Tuila couldn't help but remember everything that had happened with the Silver Knight during the previous war, and she knew that she was going to have to get the other girl to share a personal conversation with her later on so that she could hear the full details of everything that she had done since the final battle against Mersall. 

"What brings you here?" Tuila questioned after introductions had drawn to a close. "I have to ask why you haven't come here sooner if you're really as involved with this castle as you've claimed to be."

"We're the Skylian Mages," Lana explained with a smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you. As soon as we heard that you were leading a Hanilia group here, we decided to come by and see if there was anything that we could do to help you out. Tell me... Is it alright if we help you to the best of our ability from here on out?"

Tuila hesitated before sighing and nodding. "Alright," she said simply. This certainly complicated her duties for the day, and it at least somewhat explained where her negative feeling had come from. She got the feeling that there was still a bit more to it that she hadn't yet uncovered, but Tuila was choosing to not push it for the time being. She would have more than enough time to figure out what was happening later on. For the moment, she had to settle in the Skylian Mages and arrange a meeting time where their arrival could be discussed in depth with the other leaders of the castle development. 

As Tuila shut the doors behind the Skylian Mages, she felt another blast of cold wind hit her. It was an uncharacteristically cold day, Tuila had to confess. She hadn't been expecting the temperature to drop so low with the sun sitting high in the sky with a smile on its face. She frowned to herself, and her stomach twisted itself into a knot once again. She had a bad feeling about the day still, and she wished that she had an easy way to explain why she felt so absolutely terrible about it. 

The doors were almost resistant to shutting, Tuila noticed. She shook it off to the best of her ability and glanced over the group of Skylian Mages once again. It certainly made sense why they were there given the information that she had already heard about, but Tuila wanted to hear the story in full as soon as possible. Saying that they were the Skylian Mages was a bold claim to make, and Tuila wanted to hear as many details as they had at once. She was going to get the Clan Leaders down there and then make sure that they were able to listen. After all, Tuila was positive that Jayler in particular would be excited to see his sister once again. 

Suddenly, one of the Skylian Mages let out a gasp. "Something's wrong," Lana whispered as she dashed towards the doors. She pried the doors open without any issues despite her seemingly frail figure, and Tuila let out a small frown at how deceiving her appearance was. She made a mental note to ask about that as soon as she had the chance to as well. 

However, Tuila's thoughts were brought to a screeching halt as soon as she saw what had Lana so nervous. The air outside the castle had turned a pale blue with blusters of white snow flying through the sky in every direction. That was why it was so cold. There was an Ice spell being cast in the city, and a powerful mage had to be behind it. 

"We're in trouble," Arian murmured with a nervous chuckle as he rubbed at the base of his neck. He shook his head to dismiss his concerns before joining Lana beside the door to glance out. Tuila could see enough from her place a few paces away. The snow and ice were starting to come together to create the outline of soldiers made of pale blue and white. A frown appeared on her face, and Tuila felt her nails begin to dig into her palm. She knew exactly what was happening, and it explained everything about her bad feeling from the day. 

They were under attack, and if Tuila had to wager a guess, she would have assumed that Alba was behind it. They had finally figured out what was happening with their enemy, and then there was a strike from a powerful Ice mage capable of making soldiers from their power. That certainly fit the description of what they knew about Alba thus far, and Tuila was positive that this battle wasn't going to end well unless they prepared themselves at once. 

She snapped, and an amplification spell was cast immediately so that her voice was heard in every corner of the castle. "Everyone, get into formation. The palace is under attack from Alba's forces. We have some new allies with us, so if you see someone that you don't recognize, don't make a big deal about it. Just be sure to take care of the Ice soldiers before they have the chance to make it inside, alright? We can't afford to lose now," she announced. As soon as she was finished, she snapped once again before turning her gaze towards the Skylian Mages as the spell dispersed. "What are you just standing around here for? If you're going to be here, you're going to have to fight with us."

The response from the Skylian Mages was immediate, and they all scattered soon afterwards. Tuila watched them go, never letting her eyes leave the one who called herself Jay. They had a lot of talking to do as soon as this battle was over, and Tuila couldn't tell if she was looking forward to it or not. She supposed that it didn't matter much. After all, they had to survive the fight at hand before a conversation could be held, and that would undoubtedly be far easier said than done. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time to go make chocolate chip cookies woo
> 
> -Digital


	29. Chapter Twenty-Eight: Frozen Prison

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Clan Leaders and Skylian Mages acquaint themselves as a new battle begins.

Jay found a strange sense of familiarity as she made her way throughout the castle. The layout was the same that she had gotten used to during her youth, and everything was in the same place that she remembered. Her feet slammed into the ground below, and Jay unsheathed her sword when she was alone in a hallway. As soon as her sword was out, Jay leaned out of the nearby window and winced, realizing that she wasn't going to be able to fight with a sword up close. The enemies made of Ice were too far away, and she doubted that they were going to want to crawl up the side of the building right off the bat. Magic was going to be necessary to defeat her enemies. 

Jay sheathed her blade once more and looked down at her hands, watching as purple sparks flew between her fingers. She wasn't the best when it came to magic. She never had been, if she was being honest. Her magic had only grown strong enough for regular casting after Lyloc provided Jay with her powers, and that wasn't exactly a long time for Jay to get used to manipulating her magic. She had a decent enough sense of control over her powers, but making grand displays with energy wasn't exactly her strong suit. Still, Jay knew that this was no time to be picky, and she couldn't spend too long focusing on other matters when the Ice creatures were already starting to crawl their way towards the building. If ice covered the castle as a whole, they were going to be in trouble. The plan would likely shift to making sure that the inhabitants of the castle couldn't survive the freezing temperatures, and Jay didn't think that many of them would be able to endure it for too long, so she took to focusing on making sure that her foes were held off for as long as possible. 

Jay snapped her fingers and created purple blast of energy before sending it flying down to the nearest crowd of Ice fighters down below. There were far more of them than she had been anticipating seeing, and Jay felt her stomach start to twist into a knot. She was used to battle, but fighting with people who she wasn't familiar with from a distance didn't make her feel any better about the situation. Her head gave a distant, annoyed pound. She would work on getting rid of the pain as soon as the battle ended. 

An explosion of fire made contact with the ground below, and Jay realized that it had come from an upper floor of the castle. Jay glanced up briefly before forcing herself to strike back with another rocket of purple energy. She wasn't entirely aware of what type of magic she was attempting to draw from throughout this encounter, but Jay didn't care much for trying to figure out details. All she wanted to do was survive this mess of a battle. 

Jay heard footsteps rounding a nearby corner, and she looked over her shoulder to see who it was. She let out a gasp, and her eyes went wide when she recognized the person in question. For just a moment, she wasn't thinking about the fight in the slightest. Jay's magic died on her fingers before it could be unleashed and create something more. All that mattered was the person standing with her in the hallway. 

It was none other than Jayler Rose himself, and Jay felt as if the air had been taken from her lungs. 

Jayler froze in place as well, his eyes wide in the very picture of shock. He took a step closer to her, one hand reaching out hesitantly. "Is that... Is it you?" Jayler questioned quietly. Jay could see that his hands were shaking, and she did her best to keep from swallowing anxiously or showing other signs of nerves. 

Jay wasn't sure of how she was meant to respond to his question. It was clear as could be that she was going to have to answer in the affirmative despite her urge to deny it until they could talk. She had to get out of that habit, and telling everything to her companions the day prior was meant to pull her away from her previous thought process. Jayler had always been different to her anyways. They were bound by blood, and everything seemed so much simpler as long as he was around. 

"You can call me Jay," she wound up telling him instead. "We'll talk more after this fight is over. How does that sound? We have a lot to take care of at the moment, and I don't think that it would be good if we allowed ourselves to get distracted now."

Jayler was stunned at first, but he managed to force himself to nod in response. "Yeah... You're right. We can talk about it later," he whispered. He still seemed to be a bit distracted, and it took far too much effort for Jayler to shake off his previous thoughts to focus on the battle at hand. He snapped his fingers together, and flames began to crackle between his palms as he turned his attention towards the window. 

Jay jumped backwards, away from the window, as soon as she realized how much he was trying to do. Flames rocketed through the air, and they slammed into the ground below. Jay realized that it had to be a different mage that had been responsible for the fiery streak of magic a few moments prior, and she couldn't tell if she was more relieved to have Jayler there with her or if she would have preferred for him to be elsewhere. 

Jay took to the window once again as soon as Jayler was finished. He had managed to take out quite a few of the enemies in the area, and Jay had to confess that her brother's fiery magic certainly packed quite the punch. In fact, he seemed to be even more experienced with unleashing powerful blasts than she was, and Jay would have been lying if she said that she wasn't impressed with everything that he had proven himself capable of. 

"There are so many of them..." Jayler whispered from his place beside Jay. "I don't know how Alba could have prepared for this to such an extent. I didn't realize that there were so many creatures made of Ice magic near here..."

There was something that caught Jay's attention. She turned to face him, eyes wide as she remembered everything about Cryai. "Ice magic?" she questioned. Images danced through her mind of the way that Cryai had stroked her cheek in the process of examining the symbol of Skylox found there. She remembered the way that the Ice mage in Nadia had drained everything that she was so effortlessly. It appeared that she was far from being the only one with the issues of fighting back against an Ice mage. 

Jayler nodded his response, eyes flashing with determination. "Alba is the one that we're fighting against. That's what everyone here thinks, at the very least. Alba is a Lakinya, and that's the reason that we're trying to fight back. Alba has the power to create artificial creatures made out of Ice, hence why there are so many enemies here now. None of them are real, but we have to obliterate all of them if we want to get out of here," he explained. 

Jay nodded to herself as she processed what he was saying. It certainly made sense given how fine Jayler suddenly was with fighting and even killing the enemies that were closing in around the castle. Even though he didn't have much of a choice, she still would have found it strange if not for the explanation that he provided. Jayler seemed like the type to prefer peace over death, though Jay supposed that such a concept applied to nearly every living creature that she had ever cross paths with. It was logical that Jayler knew something that she didn't with how happy he was to rain down fire from above without a moment of hesitation. It was certainly helpful information to have. 

However, it did lead to her thoughts starting to spiral when she realized that Cryai was involved with this Alba character. If Alba had already been revealed to the other groups of Hanilia, then chances were high that the plans of the Lakinya were moving forward far faster than Jay had anticipated. She hadn't exactly been given much time to think it over, but she wasn't about to ignore the point that the evidence was trying to give her. She was going to have to finish the current battle as soon as possible so that she would be able to target Alba. While she had been gathering the Skylian Mages, Alba had been growing their forces, and Jay couldn't let them get away with such a thing, especially with the knowledge that this was likely involved with the foreboding event that had spurred Lyloc to tell Jay to gather the Skylian Mages. 

She did her best to cast the thoughts away from her mind as she snapped her fingers together, creating another sphere of purple energy that she threw towards the troops gathering around the castle. She didn't see any of her allies outside, and she suspected that was a good thing. It would have been so easy for them to be surrounded given the circumstances, and Jay felt sick at the mere concept. Still, she found herself wondering how the rest of her allies were doing, and she closed her eyes for a brief moment to pray that they were safe before she returned to the fight at hand. 

~~~~~

Lana braced her hands against the palace doors, holding them shut against the onslaught of Ice creations outside. Ronan was beside her, and he was manipulating his Metal magic to seal the doors together as a solid slab that would have been impossible to breach without tearing them from their hinges entirely. Lana was vaguely aware that they weren't alone, but she wasn't positive as to who exactly was with her and Ronan. 

As soon as he had finished, Ronan took a step back to admire his handiwork with a small, exhausted smile. Lana nodded her understanding before turning to see who exactly had been with them. She was met with the sight of two people, one of them a redheaded boy and the other a girl with black hair. Lana recognized them right off the bat, and a smile appeared on her face. 

"Luke and Gemini," Lana concluded. "You're members of the Clan Leaders group, aren't you?" She had seen their faces a great many times during the aftermath of the war between Daragon and the Fearbringers. There had been a few pictures constructed that recreated the Clan Leaders for the sake of spreading the news that the war was over, and Lana, being a master of gathering information, had seen such photos many times. 

"Who are you?" Luke questioned carefully as his gaze flickered back and forth between Lana and Ronan. The gears in his mind were turning, and Lana suspected that he was remembering what Tuila had said about a group of new fighters joining their ranks temporarily for the sake of the coming battle and the necessity of their shared success. 

"Lana and Ronan. That's all you need to know," Lana replied as she turned her attention back towards the door. She could hear the creatures on the other side battering their bodies against the surface, and she cringed as a hissing sound seeped through the space between her teeth. She was glad that Ronan had managed to seal it closed before any of the beasts could break through their defensive line. It was only natural that there would be more of them at the front entrance in comparison to the rest of the castle, but Lana still hated the fact that they were dealing with so much. 

"We're part of the Skylian Mages," Ronan explained when Lana didn't continue to elaborate. "It's nice to meet you both." She could hear the smile in his voice, eternally pleasant and polite even when they were staring down a dark situation involving the potential for their defeat. It was part of Ronan's charm, but Lana couldn't help her wonderings about if perhaps Ronan was being naive in his endless optimism that they would succeed. 

Luke gasped in surprise, but he chose to not say anything else on the matter. He was cut off when glass shattered, and the sound echoed in Lana's ears. She turned to see that one of the windows, the one located on the left side of the doors, had been shattered by an icy hand. The creatures were far less put together than Cryai, Lana found. Their skin was pale blue and white for one where Cryai had looked mostly human. It appeared that their enemy wasn't putting as much effort into making their creations look nice. After all, there was no point for the creatures to mask themselves as human when their only objective was to breach through the castle and defeat those found inside. 

Lana was the first one to respond, and she thrust one palm in the direction of the window after she had lined herself up. A powerful blast of Air magic was sent spiraling through the space between herself and the Ice creatures, knocking back the first wave and keeping them from getting any closer. The window was too small for any of them to crawl through unless they suddenly gained a sense of organization or strategy, both of which they seemed to lack and were desperately seeking. Still, Lana found that she didn't want to take any chances given that they were already cornered enough as it was, and their need for preparation wasn't helping in the slightest. 

Gemini pressed her hand against the wall between the door and the window, and plants created themselves from the tips of her fingers. They weaved together to create a solid blockade that kept the Ice monsters from breaking in through the hole that they had created. Lana watched as the first beast attempted to beat its fists against the class, and she was pleasantly surprised to see that the plants didn't even bend. She smiled and let out a sigh of relief, happy that the short-term goal had ended in success even if there was still a lot left for them to take care of. 

The sound of another window breaking cut off her thoughts, and Lana pointed to the window found on the right side of the door. Gemini got to work immediately, and Ronan pressed his hands against the door once again to fortify its defenses. Lana prayed that the battle ended as soon as possible. The front entrance was harder to defend than she had thought, and they were going to need all the help they could get. 

~~~~~

Lex had taken to the top floor of the castle after the announcement of the attack rang out, and she was continuing to rain down fiery attacks whenever she had the chance. She knew that she was more experienced when it came to Water magic, but at the same time, she doubted that fighting Ice magic with Water wasn't exactly going to end well, so she elected to try out her Fire magic instead. It wasn't precisely easy for her to call upon an element that she had spent so long trying to hide from the world around her, but with enough concentration, Lex was able to make at least a little bit of progress. 

"Fire magic, hm?"

Lex nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard a voice from behind her, and she was on the verge of hitting the wall in her surprise. She was luckily able to get out her current spell before she could misfire and hit either herself or someone around her, but she still cringed when she accidentally hit the ground next to the enemies instead of her foes themselves. Lex shook her head and turned to face the newcomer even though she already knew who it was going to be. 

"Zelda," Lex greeted simply. She watched the area around the Fearbringer commander for a few moments before continuing. "Where's Tavi? I thought that you two spent all of your time tomorrow."

Zelda shrugged. "He's a big kid. He can take care of himself," she answered bluntly. She took a place beside Lex near the window, and she hurled down a streak of purple energy. The chaos of it was nauseating enough that Lex felt as if she was going to be sick, but she supposed that was kind of the point. Zelda's magic was the Chaos element after all, a wild and difficult to control type of magic. Only someone with the best sense of composure such as Zelda would be able to keep it under her influence without any issues. 

"I see," Lex murmured. She turned her attention back to the window and let out a sigh. It seemed like the enemy forces just weren't going to stop coming, and she absolutely hated how accurate it seemed that her thoughts were on the matter. She had been left with a bad feeling as soon as the fight started and the Ice enemies started marching closer, and this was only telling her once again that she had been correct. She should have known that nothing was this easy and that it was only a matter of time before everything went wrong. 

Zelda followed Lex's lead and sent another attack raining down a moment later. The air around the two was silent, and Lex resisted the urge to say something. She knew that Zelda was a woman of few words, and the last thing Lex wanted was to say something strange around someone was terrifying as the Fearbringer leader. Zelda had more than enough experience on the battlefield to fry anybody who happened to get on her bad side, and while Lex doubted that a snarky comment would earn her a place on Zelda's list, she chose to not test it. She bit her lip and worked the skin between her teeth silently before concentrating on creating another spell. 

In the end, it was Zelda who broke through the quiet. "I want to speak with you privately after this battle is over," Zelda finally told her. "Find me when all of these matters have been taken care of, and make sure to come alone. I have a secret matter that we need to discuss alone."

Lex stared at Zelda in surprise. Why in the world would Zelda want to see her, much less alone? It didn't make any sense at all. Her head was spinning quickly from the fight at hand, and Lex realized that it wasn't going to be possible for her to explain the situation as long as she was as disoriented as she was at present. She would have to think about it after the fight had ended. That seemed like a nice middle ground, didn't it? 

She forced herself to concentrate on creating yet another fireball. Jayler was still better at summoning the flames than she was, but it was a start. Lex hadn't exactly been given much of a chance to explore her Fire magic during the war on Daragon due to Tuila firmly insisting that she keep her powers a secret. Lex wasn't entirely sure if she was even meant to be using such power in that instant, but she supposed that she didn't exactly have a way to ask even if she wanted to. The battle at hand had to be more important keeping a secret anyways. If there were consequences later, so be it, but at least she would have been alive to face them. 

~~~~~

Arian had to admit that he didn't like the way that one of the Clan Leaders was watching him. He had taken to fighting alongside Colt and Jubilee, and the trio had wound up with Xia and Ocean, two members of the Clan Leader team. Xia kept on glaring at him every chance that she could get, almost as if she could sense his weakness. 

It took every piece of composure that Arian possessed to keep from completely snapping and begging for her to leave him alone and stop staring. He didn't think that it would do anything regardless of how much he pleaded, but he was considering it anyways. Arian instead tried to concentrate on patching up a hole that had formed in a nearby window. He didn't know how they were supposed to go on the offensive given the circumstances, but he wasn't about to ask questions either. He knew what he had to do, and Arian knew better than to bother asking when there were more important things going on. 

"Why are you staring at him like that?" Ocean questioned of Xia after a long moment of quiet between the members of the group. She was holding up a small sphere of light to better illuminate the area. The windows being closed off made it difficult for them to see, and Arian was glad that they had someone as gentle as Ocean to take care of it. He knew that Jubilee had Light magic as well, but something about her darker demeanor and passive glares made him positive that Ocean was the better option out of the two. 

"I'm trying to figure out what in the world is going on here," Xia responded, not taking her eyes off Arian. "This all happened rather suddenly, wouldn't you say? I believe that we've got more than a few questions to ask of our new friends."

"Save it for after the fight, would you?" Jubilee questioned, and Arian's thoughts on her outlook on life were immediately confirmed. "I know that you don't know all that much about us, but I think it would be best if you saved it for a time when we weren't about the be taken over by an invasion of monsters from outside. In fact, talking about this now is downright dangerous, if you ask me."

Arian silently thanked Jubilee for her words offering him salvation, and he made a mental note to tell her later on that he was glad to have her on his side. Still, Xia's gaze lingered on him for a few moments longer before she turned her focus elsewhere. Arian still felt sick to his stomach. He supposed that Xia was watching him because he was clearly the weakest link emotionally when it came to the trio of himself, Jubilee, and Colt. Arian knew both Jubilee and Colt better than Xia did, and not even he would have dared to cross them. Colt was still something of a mystery to him, but Arian was positive that he wasn't someone that should have been trifled with under any circumstances. 

The sound of shattering glass echoed around them, and Arian let out a hiss when the material began to rain down on them as a window was completely splintered into tiny fragments. He plucked a small shard of glass from the back of his wrist, happy to see that it hadn't done too much damage. He turned his attention up and saw that a creature made of Ice magic was starting to try and scramble through the opening. It seemed that they were stronger than appearances would have led him to believe. 

Jubilee dealt a swift punch to the first creature, and flames crackled along the surface of her knuckles. The icy beast was knocked backwards before hitting the ground hard. In fact, the monster had completely evaporated before it even had the chance to make contact with the dirt, and Arian couldn't help but cringe. Jubilee was far stronger than he ever could have imagined, and that had only been a single punch. 

"Uh, I think you guys are going to want to see this," came Xia's voice a few moments later. For the most part, she had covered up another window in the hallway with a dark sheet of magic that Arian recognized as belonging to the Death element. A frown appeared on his face as he moved closer, and he did his best (though he ultimately failed) to suppress the nauseating feeling of horror in his stomach. Xia didn't seem like the type to openly display fear, and as far as Arian could tell, this was as honest as she got when it came to the emotion. Somehow, that made it feel even worse for him as he moved closer despite the mounting dread in his stomach. 

When Arian peeked through the small slit of available light found in the sheet of magic, he let out a gasp. Ice was starting to build along the bottom boundary of the castle, and it was very quickly starting to climb up the side of the palace without any hesitation. The farther that the Ice spread, the harder the battle was going to become. That much was clear as could be. The Ice magic beasts couldn't fight back from ground level, and climbing took too much time for all of them. If they had a sheet of thick ice to cling to, they would be able to make their way up the side of the building, and that would have made defending the area a much more difficult task than any of them could have imagined. 

"I think that something is wrong," Ocean murmured, though that much seemed obvious. She suddenly let out a gasp, and the air in the castle immediately seemed to fall still. Arian could sense a shift, but he wasn't entirely sure about how he was meant to classify it. All he knew was that something weird had happened, and if he had to guess, it was far from being a good thing. 

Sure enough, Colt let out a snarl a moment later. "This castle ran on a magical core located beneath the ground when the Skylox Heroes were occupying it. I suspect that a similar system was put in place when the new group came to move in. If I had to guess, I would say that our enemies are trying to freeze us inside and then completely tear the building down. The ice mounting on the bottom of the castle also extends underground, and the core got too cold to keep its power running. We're without any extra resources, in other words," he whispered. 

"The castle was given power augmenters when it was created as far as I know," Xia said next. "That's what I heard Tuila say back when we first moved in, at the very least. If you ask me, this is going to put us at a massive disadvantage. The power augmenters would have given us a fighting chance no matter how long they kept coming in, but if the core of the castle has gone down because of the cold... Oh, we're so screwed."

Arian felt his chest grow tight at their words, and he resisted the urge to start pacing. That wouldn't help anyone regardless of how desperate he was to get his pent-up energy out there somehow. He had to stay focused and productive. Arian was far from being the best fighter, but he couldn't get self-loathing and lose his concentration when there was so much riding on their success. 

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," came a cry from Jubilee a moment later. She was looking through the small sliver of the barrier that had been left behind by Xia's magic, and as far as Arian could tell, she was beyond being simply upset over something. This was a deep anger that went far deeper than he could have ever imagined. Once again, that nauseating feeling spread throughout his stomach, and Arian was convinced that he was going to be sick if he didn't start to ground himself. 

A person was standing below the crack in the magical shield, and they had bright blue hair tied into a high ponytail that swung in the freezing cold wind. They were wearing all black that came together to form a slick suit that blocked out the low temperatures. Their skin was so pale that it almost edged on becoming blue, and snowflakes could be seen seeping in through the gloves that covered their fingers. 

"That cannot be who I think it is," Xia said bluntly as she took her place beside Jubilee. The two of them could barely stare out through the hole together, and Xia took a step back before sealing up the slit once and for all. Jubilee looked away as soon as she realized what was happening, and Arian could have sworn that he heard her swear under her breath. 

"That would most likely be the enemy commander," Jubilee announced. The temperature of the castle was already starting to drop, and Arian couldn't tell if he was shuddering because of the sudden cold or because of the fear that immediately struck his heart when he registered what her words meant. 

"The enemy commander..." Ocean whispered, her eyes going wide. She was as pale as a sheet, and her sphere of Light magic flickered before forcefully returning to its regular bright glow. Her determination was starting to falter under the weight of this revelation, and Arian could see it regardless of how much she tried to hide it. She shook her head to try and focus on the situation at hand. "If you ask me, there's only one person that it could possibly be..."

Ocean and Xia looked over, and their gazes locked for a moment that, while only lasting for a few seconds, seemed to drag on for a thousand years. Arian's nausea returned full force, and it only grew worse when he heard a name slip free of their lips in sync. 

"Alba."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since last week's update I have posted three new books what the hell dude
> 
> -Digital


	30. Chapter Twenty-Nine: Dual Strike

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle at the palace continues, but Alba's icy beasts prove more troublesome than expected.

Lex felt awkward for the duration of the fight between the occupants of the castle and the beasts made of Ice magic. She couldn't stop glancing over her shoulder to make sure that Zelda was still watching her, and though she knew that Zelda would always be there, she found herself looking regardless. The striking gaze of the brown-haired woman bothered her in a way that she couldn't quite describe, and Lex couldn't help but feel her skin crawl when she thought about what their conversation would potentially involve. She knew that Zelda wasn't going to hurt her, but her nerves were still oddly stifling. Lex had never been the type to worry much about what happened around her, but this was the exception, and she hated it more than she could hope to articulate at the heart of a battle.

Zelda threw a sphere of purple energy through the window, and Lex looked over at her with a light sigh. She wished that she knew what was going on inside of Zelda's head, but she didn't think that she had a way of prying into Zelda's thoughts until after the battle ended. She was going to make herself anxious if she spent too much longer trying to pull herself away from her musings about Zelda.

The magical energy of the room shifted itself, and Lex felt partially as if she had been punched in the stomach and forced to cope with the aftermath. She glanced around in confusion, wondering what had happened. Lex yelped when she was forced to duck down and throw her arms over her head to avoid a slash from an icy claw in her direction. Zelda followed up by removing her swords from their sheaths and slashing at the offending hand, and Lex gave her a grateful glance as soon as she was able to pull her energy together. 

"The magical core that powers this castle was disturbed," Zelda murmured when she noticed Lex's confusion. "That's how large places like this run. I don't know what we're supposed to do to counteract all of this, but it would be for the best if we kept our composure and kept fighting with everything that we have. Do what you can to keep fighting back."

Lex nodded. She felt another shiver down her spine at the way that Zelda spoke with her, and she almost wondered if she was about to be sick. The nausea pulled at the corners of her stomach and left her with no easy way to rid herself of her own paranoia. She forced the thought away by conjuring a small fireball into one hand, and Lex chucked it through the window as soon as Zelda gave her an opening to attack through. Lex heard a feral screech from one of the ice monsters, and she let out a sigh of relief when she realized that she had been saved from her own struggles for at least a few moments. That was more than enough as far as Lex was concerned. She would find a way out of this. That was how she had always functioned. If she could just hold on for a few moments later, she would be fine.

Zelda took her place in front of the window and created a sphere of purple energy. She tossed it downwards and watched as the icy beasts were sent flying outwards from the powerful momentum. Lex heard the creatures scream as they made contact with the nearby wall of the outside of the castle. She smiled to herself, hating that she had actually enjoyed hearing the sound of the screeches. Then again, if they weren't actually alive, it wasn't quite as twisted for her to be okay with listening to it, right?

Lex chose to not question her morality in the heat of the battle, and she hurled another fireball as soon as Zelda stepped back. Their fighting dynamic was far better than Lex had realized, and she had to confess that the other girl knew what she was doing on a battlefield. She had seen Zelda fight many times during the war on Daragon, but it seemed to take on a whole new meaning this time for reasons that Lex couldn't quite define.

"There are so many of them," Lex whispered as soon as she caught a glimpse of the ground below. The icy creatures were starting to mount on top of each other to make their way towards the windows that they were being attacked from. The beasts had little intelligence as far as Lex could tell, but they were still starting to learn about how to stop the attacks from their enemies. She winced as another claw came her way, and she created a blast of fire that slammed into the hand and sent it flying backwards.

"They aren't alive. We're going to be able to defeat them easily. As long as we can hold our defensive lines, we'll be fine," Zelda assured her, taking on an oddly maternal tone that struck Lex to her core. The blonde Clan Leader looked up at her in shock, not understanding why Zelda was suddenly being so openly kind to her. What could have influenced the changed decision of her companion? It was certainly something significant enough to influence her consistent passive detached attitude, and all Lex could do was stare at her. She was bound to find the answers soon enough, but it bugged her more than she was willing to admit. 

"Yeah," Lex whispered as she nodded to herself. She tried to push herself back into the fray soon afterwards, but Zelda had already taken her place at the window, forcing Lex to wait until she was done. Lex let out a sigh, a physical manifestation of unexpected impatience, and she realized that her breath was fogging up as a cloud in front of her mouth. She let out a gasp, and the action repeated itself. She winced at the sight of the show of cold weather, and Lex realized that she hadn't even noticed it. 

"They're trying to freeze us in," Zelda explained when she noticed that Lex was shocked. "You have Fire magic. Of course it doesn't impact you. Be careful to stay out of the line of fire even so. Your powers can only protect you so much."

Lex nodded slowly and closed her eyes for a moment as she focused on stoking the flames within. She wasn't anywhere near as talented with Fire magic as Jayler was. In fact, Lex had only started to actively practice after they got back home from the war on Daragon. She had seen Jayler doing it in moments when he thought nobody was watching, and she had taken up the habit after a while. She wasn't meant to be using much Fire magic due to her bloodline, but she was glad that she had been making attempts prior to this fight. Lex wasn't great at it, but she could tell that her brief stunts of practice were making the battle easier than it otherwise would have been.

After that, Zelda and Lex fell into a silent routine of sending out blows and then leaving openings for the other to attack through. It was strange how easily they were able to understand the rhythm of one another on the battlefield, and it only made Lex's curiosity regarding Zelda grow stronger. She wished that there was a way for them to talk before the end of the battle, but since such was not meant to be, Lex turned her attention to fighting with everything that she had. Even if she couldn't speed up the fight so the conversation would come sooner, Lex would do what she could, and that was what everyone, including Zelda, needed most from her in those precious moments.

~~~~~

A group of Fearbringers wound up taking over for Arian's group. He was beyond relieved to see the other fighters even if he didn't know their names. He knew that his team had other things to take care of, and he wouldn't be able to accomplish anything if they were stuck blocking off the large number of windows in their segment of the castle.

The world itself seemed to fall apart as Arian ran through the castle. He was still with Jubilee, Colt, Ocean, and Xia as they made their way towards the front of the building. Arian knew what they were doing, but he still found himself feeling uncertain from the possibility of everything falling apart. In theory, it was a simple task. He simply had to get to the front of the castle with the rest of his little group so that they could help to block off the door along with the team that could be found there. Alba was bound to move in their direction soon since that was the easiest way to get into the building, and Arian wasn't about to let them break through the defensive line. The mere idea made him feel nauseous, and he wasn't about to give in. The castle was too important to keep safe for that to happen.

The journey to the front door was both too fast and agonizingly slow, something that Arian found to be a cruel twist of fate as he continued to slam his feet against the ground below. He was sprinting at full speed, but he wasn't moving fast enough. Or was he going too fast? He couldn't tell. His brain was little more than a numb afterthought, and nothing seemed to matter quite as much as the possibility of Alba managing to break into the castle to destroy everything they had worked towards. He had just arrived at the palace, and Arian didn't want any of it to crumble. They had spent so long trying to get the Skylian Mages together, and this was their first mission after such a task was accomplished. He had to stay focused.

"Here we are," Jubilee suddenly said, giving a sideways glance to Arian as the group slid to a stop. He let out a sigh when he slid to a stop, not realizing just how much his lungs ached until after he had forced himself to keep from moving. Each breath sent a sharp pain shooting through his abdomen, and Arian had to force himself to focus on the crack in the door to keep from getting sick over the agony. He hadn't ever been good with his own suffering, and this situation was no exception. He needed a break. Or maybe he needed to curl up in a secluded corner of the world for the rest of his days and wait for all of this to be over. Both of them felt like good options, and Arian wanted to embrace whatever would allow him to stop feeling so damn nauseous due to the pain in his stomach.

It took Arian a bit too long to gain a hold of his surroundings. He didn't realize that they were with Lana, Ronan, Gemini, and Luke until after a few seconds had passed. Arian bit down on his lip as soon as he realized that Jay wasn't with them. Judging by process of elimination, there were two Clan Leaders missing from the scene as well, though Arian was too confused and dazed to bother asking other questions. He knew that he would be able to meet the Clan Leaders after the fight ended, and surviving the incoming onslaught was his first priority. He couldn't get distracted. He had already made that mistake arguably, but Arian didn't want it to get any worse.

"What are you doing here?" Lana questioned as she took a few steps away from the door. Arian could hear the panic in her voice, and he had to say that he hated the way that she sounded so afraid. The Lana that he knew was chipper yet composed, someone who he could count on to be logical in even the most dismal of situations. He had certainly needed that during the Cryai situation, and yet, she was unable to provide it in that instant. Somehow, that made Arian feel even worse than before, and he clamped his lips shut to keep from showing how sick he felt to the rest of the group.

"The commander of the enemy faction is here," Colt replied bluntly. "That's all that you really need to know. Come on. We have to make sure that nobody manages to get through the gate. How solidified are the doors? Do you think that they'll be able to sustain a few direct hits? It would be good for us to make sure that the doors won't cave if this Alba figure decides to step out of the shadows."

Ronan's expression flickered with panic, and Arian couldn't help but wish that he had more to say to the young Skylian Mage. Out of all the members of their group, Ronan was easily the most inexperienced, and Arian hated that he was being forced into combat after barely ever needing to fight. Still, he knew that this wasn't a choice that he could influence given the situation, so Arian continued to stay silent even as Ronan spoke. "What?!" Ronan squeaked, the word coming out more like a cry from a small animal than a person.

"It's an Ice mage by the name of Alba," Ocean explained. Her expression showed worry while her voice was overflowing with a panic barely held together by a thin veil of composure resting over the top without any sense of care. She was trying to keep from scaring everyone else, but Arian was no stranger to fear, and he could see just how terrified she was. "We have to make sure that they don't get in here. The magical core has already been tampered with. They're trying to freeze us while we're still inside."

"Bold move on their part," Gemini snorted with a shake of her head. "Fine then. If that's how they want to play it, then we're just going to have to find a way to get them out as soon as possible. We were going to try and find out as much more about Alba as we could before this battle took place, but I guess that we don't have any other options at this point. Let's just get rid of them before they can cause any other problems for us."

"The doors should be stable enough to take about three direct hits, but we're going to need more than one Metal mage if we want to seal it shut with more fortification than we already have," Lana replied quickly after Gemini was done speaking. She glanced out over the four Clan Leaders in the area before wincing. "It seems that we don't have the Clan Leader with Metal magic here. Does anybody know where we can find him? Getting Jay would certainly help out as well. They're going to have the best chances of shutting the door aside from the Metal Draconic Superior. We have to find them as soon as possible to make sure that we can sustain these hits if Alba gets frisky enough to attack the building directly."

"Regardless of if they're together or not, it's going to take too much time for us to find them," Luke pointed out. "We have to do what we can to keep defending the doors even if it means that we don't have their help. There has to be another way for us to block off the door to keep Alba from getting inside, right?"

"Freezing the doors shut wouldn't do us any good," Lana whispered. "Our enemies can use Ice magic, after all. That will just play right into their hands and give them more power over the blockade since they'll be able to tear the doors from their hinges if we aren't careful. If we can't fortify our defenses, then we're only going to have one choice here. We've got to drive them off before they can get any closer than they already have."

"How are we supposed to get rid of them? They aren't even alive!" Arian cried out, trying not to sound too anxious despite his mounting panic. "We can't just hit them once and then call it good! They're just going to keep coming back unless we can find a way to defeat the one who's been conjuring them and keeping everything going all this time!"

"We've got to find some way to pull that off," Xia told him, her voice as intense as could be. "Somebody in here has to be able to get through the enemy's defenses and defeat Alba before they can keep summoning the damn things. Nobody ever said it was going to be easy, but I think that's the only way we're going to be able to save ourselves from this attack."

"But Alba is a Lakinya! How are we supposed to defeat someone who is on the same power level as Mersall? It took us ages to defeat him, and even so, we were only barely able to do it!" Luke cried out. He was the anxious one all of a sudden, and Arian was distantly aware of the way that the redhead paced along the length of the room. "There has to be some other way for us to get rid of Alba without defeating them outright... We're at a disadvantage here. The second that we step outside, they're going to be ready to blast us to a million pieces, and that's probably the best outcome that they have planned for us right now."

"If we can't kill Alba, then we'll have to find another way to get them to turn tail and run away," Xia declared, crossing her arms over her chest. "If we can injure them enough to make them retreat, then that should be enough for now. We aren't going to be able to kill them now like you said, but we most certainly can force them to retreat. If you ask me, that's going to be our best bet for the time being anyways. Do you have any ideas about how we can pull that off?"

"How we can do it? Absolutely not," Jubilee snorted as she turned her attention to the doors. She could see ice starting to creep along the outer edges, a sign that Alba was trying to expand their influence over the building. She walked towards the doors and pressed her palms firmly against the surface, a growl forming in the back of her throat. "Our group can't pull something like that off as long as we're still trying to keep Alba out of the front door. We have to try something else... Well, not us specifically. Somebody else will have to do it."

"In other words, somebody else in the castle has to do it, but how are we supposed to pass on the message that Alba is here without leaving the door without enough attention to keep the enemy out?" Ronan asked. "If we send a single person away, then that should be enough, I suppose, but how do we know who will even be suited for the job?"

"If anyone is going to strike Alba from afar, they're going to need to be able to hit them from inside the castle with a single blow. If we give them a chance to adjust, then they're going to realize what we're up to, and we can't have that happen if we want to win in this fight," Colt pointed out. "I'm hoping that we'll be able to figure out someone with enough accuracy to take care of it before Alba notices. They'll have to be fast too, and that could very easily prove itself to be a problem."

"What I'm hearing here is that we're completely screwed!" Arian exclaimed in despair. He wasn't cut out for this. He knew that he wasn't meant to fight. Even if he had been created for combat purposes, that didn't mean that he was any good at it, and as far as Arian was concerned, he had to be one of the worst fighters to ever grace the Galaxy of Hyperion. Why in the world had Lyloc thought that he would be a good fit for the position of a Skylian Mage? He knew that he wasn't deserving of the spot. If he couldn't even remain composed in the face of a crisis, then what was he supposed to do when things inevitably got worse?

"Let's focus on fortifying the doors for now, okay?!" Jubilee snapped when she turned her head over her shoulders. "I really do hate to interrupt your mounting panic, Arian, but we need to make sure that those things don't get in here! They're trying to freeze us in here, but if they get inside, things are going to get a whole lot worse for us in the blink of an eye! I would suggest trying to help me keep this door shut!"

Arian forced himself to calm down, doing his best to not think too much about Jubilee's sharp tone. She was stressed because this was a dismal situation. He repeated as much to himself as many times as he could before he followed her lead and started to pour as much magic as he could into the door. They had to keep their enemies out at all costs, and Arian was going to do his best to keep everything from falling apart. After all, if he couldn't keep his composure at a time like this, what was he supposed to do when the future presented him with worse problems?

~~~~~

"Who is that?" Lex questioned after she dealt a fiery punch to a nearby beast of ice. She pointed towards a figure that seemed notably human among the crowd of creatures, and her heart skipped a beat. Something deep down told her that the person, whoever they were, wasn't there to help the castle's occupants to win the coming battle. 

"If I had to wager a guess, I would say that it's Alba," Zelda replied, her expression growing strained as soon as she noticed what Lex was talking about. "They're the one sending all of the Ice magic monsters after us. They must have figured out that we're trying to find out more about them, and that's their reasoning behind this attack. It all lines up a bit too well."

"If we can get rid of them, then maybe we'll be able to stop the attacks for now," Lex suggested. "Do you think that we would be able to get a clean hit in from here? I know that we're kind of far away, but it seems to me like Alba is pretty distracted with the front doors of the castle. Now could be our perfect chance to strike through their defenses with an attack that they don't see coming until it's too late."

Zelda hummed in response. "It's worth a shot. We have no way of saying if it'll work or not unless we try. It isn't as if they don't know that we're here. They've been trying to stamp us all out, and it wouldn't do much of anything to give away our position. They're too focused on overseeing the operation as a whole to bother pursuing anyone in particular, so let's use that to our advantage," she said. Lex had to confess that she was surprised to see Zelda so talkative. It was a desperate time, but it was still odd to see Zelda saying so much in one shot. She had gotten used to the Fearbringer's dark demeanor, but perhaps Lex had jumped to conclusions when she thought Zelda wasn't someone to be too casual around. 

"You're going to have a better chance of getting a good shot in, if I'm being honest," Lex told her. "I'm decent with magic, but you've got far more experience than me, and you're great with accuracy too. Why don't you give it a try? I'll do what I can to cover for you."

Zelda nodded her understanding, and she began to concentrate her energy into the tip of one finger. She began to aim in the direction of Alba, and her eyes narrowed as soon as she realized that everything was lined up properly. She created an arrow of magic from the tip of her finger, and it was left to spiral through the air in Alba's direction. Lex could only watch with a relieved smile on her face at the thought that perhaps the battle was finally about to end.

~~~~~

Jay had taken to fighting with any energy blasts that she could muster from her place near the top floor of the castle, and Jayler was firm at her side. There weren't any of the monsters high enough up for them to get in direct hits, but they could still rain down spells from above. Jay preferred fighting in melee range, but if she got close enough to swing a sword at her enemies, she would be close enough for them to tear her to shreds, and she wasn't about to take such chances.

A figure had appeared from the crowd, and Jay glared at the person in question. She couldn't see many details because of how far away she was, but she could tell that the one she was watching couldn't have been good news. She glanced over to Jayler in hopes that he would have answers for her.

"That has to be Alba," Jayler whispered as soon as he noticed that Jay was waiting for an explanation. "Seems to me like we've found out who's leading the enemy forces, and they aren't someone that we want to get too close to. Then again, I feel like that's something you were able to pick up on given that we're fighting them from back here instead of getting near them or leaving the castle..."

"They're just going to keep sending monsters after us until we can take them out," Jay told Jayler, her eyes narrowing intensely. "I'm going to see if I can get rid of them. If we can injure them enough to the point that they have to retreat, then we're going to be able to free ourselves from what they've been doing. Even a temporary reprieve will help us out a lot at this point, especially with the castle's core frozen over as it is."

Jayler nodded slowly. He didn't seem to be fully processing what Jay was saying, but if he didn't understand her words, he chose not to show it. He snapped his fingers and created an orb of Fire magic before sending it spiraling downwards towards the nearest cluster of Ice beasts. There was a large explosion that followed, and Jayler smiled at the sound of the monsters letting out shrill shrieks of pain before they completely fell to pieces. "I trust that you know what you're doing here," he said when he glanced in his sister's direction a few moments later.

Jay steeled herself at his words, and her chest filled with something warm and lovely that reminded her quite a bit of the hope that she had come to know so long ago. She began to tap into her Blade magic, and a bow and arrow formed themselves from nowhere. Jay wasn't the best with magic as a whole, but Blade abilities were among her favorites to practice because of how heavily tied they were with her regular fighting style. She could swing a sword around easily, and she certainly appreciated the increase to her power that came with Blade magic. 

Jay began to concentrate on aiming her next strike so that she didn't miss. After all, if she didn't hit Alba, chances were that she wouldn't get another chance for quite some time. That would put Alba on guard, and they would know it if anyone tried to lash out at them again. It was their only choice if they wanted to survive as a group, and Jay wasn't about to let everyone down.

When she released the arrow, Jay was aiming for the area just to the right of Alba's heart. She watched as the weapon spun rapidly towards its target, and she was shocked to see that a beam of energy shaped similar to her arrow had been sent towards Alba as well. She didn't know who had sent it out, but she wasn't going to complain. 

When both of the attacks made contact with Alba's body, Jay smiled to herself. Even if she couldn't hear the cry of agony that came with the impacts, Jay knew that this was a sign of success. The Ice magic creatures immediately began to fall apart, and Jay realized that Alba's magic was being forced out of its other forms to return to its owner. After all, significant amounts of magic would be needed to heal an arrow wound to the stomach and a matching wound to the shoulder. Jay's had been the one to hit Alba's stomach, and she took a strange amount of pride in the way that she saw blood begin to pool around Alba's hand after they curled an arm around the injury.

It only took a single flash of energy for Alba to disappear, and the rest of the icy monsters vanished along with them. Jay let out a sigh of relief and glanced over to Jayler to see that he was just as excited. He raised his hand for a fist bump, and Jay found herself returning the gesture before she could stop herself. She hadn't expected herself to reach out that way, but she didn't object to it in the slightest.

Instead, Jay closed her eyes and let out a slow sigh. The battle was over, but she knew that this was just the start of her struggles in the palace. They had survived for the time being, but it was only a matter of time before another fight took place, and Jay already wasn't looking forward to it. She didn't think that anyone was. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update good
> 
> -Digital


	31. Chapter Thirty: Blood Bound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tuila and Jay finally discuss the past as Zelda shares her truth with Lex.

The end of the fight left Lex to sigh as she turned to face Zelda. Her heart was still pounding in her chest, a sign that she was still beyond stressed. "I guess that's that," she commented with a hollow laugh that showed how anxious she truly was about the battle. Lex forced herself to focus on breathing so that she didn't look like an idiot. 

However, Lex's anxiety only returned tenfold when she remembered that Zelda had told her that she wanted to talk to her. She still didn't know what it could have been about, and her nerves certainly were not getting any better. When Zelda's gaze met her own, Lex only became more anxious, and her stomach began to feel as if it was churning. She could tell that whatever it was that Zelda wanted to discuss was serious, and they were going to have to go elsewhere to make sure that they weren't disturbed. Somehow, that only made Lex feel worse, and she looked away from Zelda solely so that she didn't have to think about the situation that she had found herself in. 

"Come on," Zelda told her as she turned on her heel and gestured for Lex to follow her. She didn't hesitate, and the blonde Clan Leader understood that she had to go with Zelda if she was going to find the answer to all of this. She did her best to shove aside the anxious feeling that came with all of this as she walked after Zelda, focusing on the way that her footsteps clicked against the ground below instead of how ungodly nervous she was. 

~~~~~

With the conclusion of the battle, Jay turned to face Jayler. "We should be alright to relax for the time being," she told him. She opened her mouth to say something else, but she was cut off when Jayler rushed forward.

He threw his arms around her quickly, consuming Jay in an embrace. She stumbled one step backwards from her shock before she remembered what was happening. It had been a while since she and Jayler were truly able to enjoy one another's company, and Jay had been hiding her face all along. This was the first time that she and her brother had actually been able to see eye to eye, and since it had been sullied by the battle at first, it only made sense that Jayler was excited with the fight over. 

Jay smiled to herself before she slowly returned the favor, and something in her stomach came to life with her happiness to see her brother once again. She didn't think that she would ever be able to confess it openly, but she was glad to be able to spend time with him once more. Jay hadn't ever been particularly good with emotions, but she didn't think that she had to be. Jayler understood everything that she could have wanted to say and then some. Jay supposed that it was part of what it meant to be siblings. 

"There's so much that we have to catch up on!" Jayler cried out as he pulled away, reaching for her hand with excitement on the verge of making him explode. "I can show you around the castle and introduce you to the people here. I'm sure that could be nice. Or we could just catch up on everything that's been happening. I swear, I've been looking forward to this for so long, and I really want to hear about what you've been up to."

Jay stood perfectly still and watched him, trying to keep from completely falling apart under his blatant acts of affection. She didn't know what kind of reaction she had been expecting from him, but this certainly wasn't it. Jay swallowed anxiously before nodding. "Yeah... I... Um... I guess that we should do that," she murmured, not bothering to tell him that she knew her way around the castle and who all the people inside were. She hadn't felt so loved in a long time, not since she was last with her brother all those weeks ago, and it felt nice to embrace that sensation once again after finishing her other mission. With her previous obligations taken care of, she would finally be able to enjoy her time with him, and Jay couldn't wait for that despite her difficulties with articulating it. 

Jayler began to lead Jay deeper into the castle, but they were both cut off by the sound of clicking shoes on the floor below. From the darkness, Tuila appeared, and Jay felt the moment that her stomach dropped into her feet. She had been sure that she would need to speak with Tuila as soon as she returned. It was part of the other woman's nature, to be this endlessly stubborn, but that didn't mean that she had to like it. In fact, Jay didn't want to confront it despite understanding that she had no choice. 

"Good afternoon, Silver Knight," Tuila said dryly, a clear sign that she was not happy with being forced to wait this long to speak with the Silver Knight with the mask finally cast aside. "It's been quite a while since we last saw each other. We have much to discuss."

Jay let out a sigh and looked over to Jayler, praying that he would understand that their meeting and subsequent conversations would have to wait a little while longer. Jayler deflated slightly, but he still seemed to get it. He shook his head and waved Jay off as he slowly pulled his fingers away from hers. "Go on and take care of that. Besides, I bet that I'm going to have to focus on getting the power source for the castle up and running again. You know all that fun stuff," he told her. Jay pretended that she couldn't hear the disappointment in his voice, a product of being forced to wait so long to speak with his sister again despite their previous promises. If there was one thing that Jay felt bad for about all of this, it had to be that. She didn't like keeping Jayler in suspense this way, and with her mission finally completed, she was at long last in a position where that didn't have to be the case. 

"I'll come and see you as soon as we're finished," Jay promised as she started to walk away with Tuila. She gave him a gentle smile that said that she wasn't going to be leaving this time, and Jayler returned the gesture, albeit shakily and without anything resembling certainty. Jay knew that his feelings towards the situation must have been complicated. After all, he was aware of how important it was for Jay to explain everything to Tuila after she had barely managed to slip away without explaining last time they were together. That did little to keep him from being swallowed whole by his own disappointment after he had waited so long to see her again though. 

Jay watched as Jayler disappeared around the corner and focused on walking as carefully as she could behind Tuila. The woman refused to meet her eyes, and Jay resisted the urge to openly wince. She could tell that the Rauleighan mage wasn't going to be tolerating any excuses, and while Jay didn't exactly have anything to offer in that department, it still left her feeling anxious and on edge. She wasn't sure of how to handle this conversation, but she supposed that it would simply have to wait until after she and Tuila had started talking. If all went well, she would be able to figure out what to say as the chat was taking place. If that wasn't the case, then she was just going to have to put up with the consequences of her actions on her own. 

Tuila took Jay to a room at the heart of the castle that Jay recognized as having once been a training ground space. There were actually training areas around the back of the castle that were much better for open displays of magic, but it wasn't as if Tuila was aiming for something effective on that front. She was trying to find an isolated area that would make it easier for her to talk to Jay without being interrupted, and Jay got the feeling that was a bad thing given the circumstances of their new encounter.

"You've been gone for a while," Tuila commented as she pushed the door to the training hall shut. She didn't say anything after that, instead walking back over to Jay and looking down on her with a gaze that was both passive and critical at the same time. It sent a shiver running up Jay's spine, but she did her best to hide such a fact from her superior. 

"You could say that," Jay murmured in response, trying her best to remain level in the face of Tuila's inquisitive eyes. It was hard for her to keep her composure, but she knew that it was for the best if she tried to speak with as much professionalism as she could manage. Breaking down under the stress of the past few days wasn't going to do her any favors. In fact, it would just leave her in even worse condition, something that Jay really didn't want to grapple with in that moment. 

"I want to hear the truth," Tuila announced. "The full story of who you are and where you come from. Why did you hide your face in the first place? What kind of magic do you have? I get the feeling that there's a lot of things that you didn't tell us about the first time that we were together during the war on Daragon... You shouldn't have even appeared during that conflict. In fact, I doubt that you would have made yourself known if not for your connection with Jayler."

"Your assumptions are correct," Jay replied, seeing no reason to keep her motives a secret. Tuila would have just figured them out sooner or later anyways, so what was the point? "As for my history... I was born on Earth, but I was taken to the Galaxy of Hyperion from a young age. I was taken in by Lyloc and the Skylox Heroes from there, and I lived in this castle for many years. I was never a Skylox Hero though, so my soul wasn't ever tied to the Sapphin Tablet, allowing me to survive when everyone else fell."

Tuila nodded slowly, and Jay took that as a cue to continue. "My magic was initially weak. I would have been born a Clan Leader, changing the elemental distribution of the group, but I had already been chosen for some other fate by Lyloc. She elected to make me a Skylian Mage for some reason that I could never tell you. When she passed on, her spirit lingered briefly, and she gave me her magic. I have limited influence over all of the elements of Hyperion because she was my direct patron, but I'm afraid that I cannot control any of them to a notable degree," Jay went on. "I was trying to keep my face hidden because of my ties with the Skylox Heroes. I feared what would happen if Fearbringers realized that I had survived. Zelda was the one who slaughtered all of the Skylox Heroes, and I didn't want trouble to come to us because of my history."

"So, you hid your face and acted as the Silver Knight for an extra degree of security," Tuila murmured with a light hum. She glanced down to the ground before shaking her head and looking back up to Jay a moment later. "I understand. You didn't want anyone to know about who you truly were until after the war on Daragon had ended."

"I briefly appeared to Jayler recently because I wished to see how he was doing, but for the most part, my time since the war's conclusion has been spent gathering the other Skylian Mages. I received a vision from Lyloc saying that I had to pull them together because of some outside force threatening the existence of Skylia. If you ask me, I would have to assume that the one in question was Alba. I believe that's what I heard others saying their name was during the fight," Jay replied. 

"That's true," Tuila nodded. She was quiet for a long moment before letting out a stiff breath through her nose. Somehow, that only made Jay more nervous for what she was about to say. "You should stay with us from here on out at the castle. We've been working together to the best of our abilities to make sure that Alba doesn't cause any issues. We weren't expecting this attack, but the more hands on deck that we have, the easier it will be to succeed in the long run."

Jay took a moment to think before nodding. She had always known what her answer was, but the brief moment of respite gave her a chance to collect herself in the face of Tuila's intensity. She had always known that it would come to this given how intent Tuila was on remaining honest at all times. It was one reason that so many people trusted her during the war on Daragon, and Jay's resolve to keep her true nature and face hidden from everyone had likely upset her as a result. Jay didn't regret it, but she did have to say that she was happy to have finally gotten the chance to discuss it with Tuila. It had been a nerve-wracking experience, yes, but Jay was glad that it was out of the way and wouldn't be a concern from that point forward. 

"Okay," Jay told her. She wasn't planning on leaving no matter what. Everyone moving into the castle had brought with it an overwhelming slew of emotions that Jay had been unsure of how to handle at first, but she was going to stand up and do something about it instead of running this time. She had spent more than enough time trying to escape the past, something that she had learned from Lana constantly insisting that she tell the truth to her fellow Skylian Mages. It was time that she finally began to take action instead of allowing her own fears behind past issues to debilitate her. 

"Alba's surprise attack might have hurt us this time, but we're going to be ready for it next time," Tuila said next, not even waiting a beat to explain. "We'll do what we can to find out what they want and how they plan to accomplish it. They've been a mystery to us up to this point, but we're working with the Fearbringers to find a way to fix this before it can spiral out of control. They've been gathering information since the war ended, and they told us that Alba existed in the first place when they appeared here at the castle."

Jay nodded her understanding, trying not to make it obvious just how tense she was. She got the feeling that Tuila could see anyways though, so she chose to turn her attention to the ground so that she wasn't forced to meet the woman's eyes. Jay wasn't about to be vocal regarding her issues with Zelda at such a crucial moment. Finding Alba and stopping them before another attack could take place had to be their priority, and as much as Jay hated the idea of having to work with Zelda again, she knew that she had to shove it aside until after the job had been completed. Jay hoped that she wouldn't be pushed to come face to face with Zelda on private terms until after everything had been said and done, but she knew that was asking for too much. 

"You're dismissed. Be careful to not cause too many issues around here. And I had better not hear about you running off to do something else after you finally came back, you hear?" Tuila questioned, her voice passive but still somewhat accusatory. When Jay nodded in response, Tuila retreated towards the doors of the room. Jay waited a few moments before following her. She could tell that Tuila wanted to speak with her more, but given the chaos of the day, Tuila had likely already been pushing it by taking a few minutes off to speak with Jay while the rest of the castle was in turmoil.

Jay let out a sigh when she was sure that she was alone. This was certainly an unfortunate situation, but she couldn't exactly complain about it. She was just going to have to bite back her own objections and focus on taking care of other matters. Everyone was counting on her to do as much. She shook her head and began to walk down to the area of the core. Jayler was bound to be down there helping to unfreeze the magical heart of the castle, and Jay wanted to talk to him more than ever before after her conversation with Tuila. 

~~~~~

Lex and Zelda sat in one of the highest rooms of the castle a few minutes after the battle ended, and Lex found herself examining Zelda carefully. "Um... Is there any reason that you wanted to talk to me?" she asked. In all truth, she was already aware that there was something on Zelda's mind. It wasn't like Zelda to simply start talking to people out of the blue, and Lex was fully aware of it. She was simply hoping that whatever Zelda had to say wasn't too bad. She already had a bad feeling about it. 

Zelda hesitated for a long moment before letting out a sigh. "I believe that we have a lot to discuss, as a matter of fact," she finally said. Zelda made sure that the door was shut before returning to her seat and reaching for her gloves. Lex hadn't ever even consciously realized that Zelda was wearing gloves. It simply seemed par for the course to her given how secretive Zelda was. It was yet another obvious fact in a long string of similar thoughts. 

But when Zelda slid her gloves off, Lex's thoughts immediately quieted themselves. The Mark of the Deadly Flame looked back at Lex, and the blonde girl fell silent as she simply stared. "This is a sign of our connection, and it's something that we need to discuss at once," Zelda elaborated. "You bear the same symbol on the back of your right hand. Such is tradition for all those of our bloodline, is it not?"

Lex nodded slowly. "I mean... Yeah, it is, but..." she whispered. "I don't understand. How about you take this from the beginning?" She hated the way that her voice was wavering, but Lex didn't trust herself to keep talking without completely falling apart. It was better that she sound a little shaky than seem as if she was on the verge of collapsing inside and out. 

Zelda let out a small sigh. "I hold blood of the Deadly Flame. It's one of the reasons that Mersall was so interested in me. The Deadly Flame augments magic in those who have it, making them stronger than they would be otherwise. He had been planning on using me as a vessel for one of his fallen comrades," she explained. "I heard such from the first Fearbringer, Yeryph. They came to me shortly before I left the Fearbringer army led by Mersall and created my own faction. They told me everything about the truth regarding Mersall's interest in me... And they explained how the two of us are connected."

Lex knew that there was a link somehow, but hearing Zelda say it out loud made her stomach sink into her feet before she could even think of responding. She nodded slowly and dully, not trusting herself to speak given that there was clearly something earth-shattering about to be shared. 

"Yeryph informed me that you are my younger sister. Both of us are children born of members of the Deadly Flame, and we were both intended to be potential hosts for one of the Lakinya," Zelda explained. "I understand that we have come from different places, but this is still the truth. Take it for what you will."

Lex couldn't bring herself to speak as she stared down at Zelda's hand. The evidence was most certainly there, and she didn't think that she would be able to protest even if she wanted to. Somehow, she knew that it was the truth, and a small voice in the back of her head told Lex that it wasn't a lie. Zelda wouldn't have falsified something like this. 

Lex swallowed dryly and forced herself to look up and meet Zelda's eyes slowly. "How long have you known?" she asked carefully. "That... That we're..."

Lex didn't need to finish her sentence, and she was glad that Zelda ultimately cut her off. She didn't think that she would have been able to stand the suspense. "A while. I heard about it during the war from Yeryph like I mentioned before. There simply wasn't a chance for us to sit down and talk about it before now. I figured that since we're going to be collaborating once again to defeat Alba, now was as good a time as any to tell you the truth. What you choose to do with this information is up to you. For all I know, you won't want anything to do with me, and I can't say that I particularly blame you. This is a lot to hear about all at once, and I can only imagine how overwhelming it is."

The Clan Leader looked down at her own hands as she let out a sigh and shook her head. No matter how much she tried to come up with a response, the words continued to elude her. Nothing came to her lips, and all she could do was sit there in silence. Her tongue felt too large for her mouth. Why did it feel as if she was on the verge of falling apart? It didn't make sense. She should have at least had something to say. Zelda had been her comrade for a while. They had fought together during the war on Daragon, so why was she freezing up? 

Lex couldn't bring herself to speak her emotions no matter how hard she tried. Perhaps it was because she wasn't aware of how she felt either. She shook her head slowly, trying to keep herself calm despite the anxiety that was quickly mounting in her core. "I... I don't know," she finally managed to push out. "I don't know what to do."

"I'm not going to push you for an answer right now," Zelda assured her. "I know that I needed to consider it for a while before telling anyone. I've only breathed a word of it to two people as of now: Tavi and Tuila. The latter was extremely intent on hearing the truth of my traitorous behavior when I turned away from Mersall's side of the war, and I was forced to explain it to her."

"Tuila knew?" Lex asked, her voice coming out as a tiny squeak that sounded far weaker than she intended. She didn't know how that made it worse, but for some reason, it most certainly did. Lex swallowed dryly once again, hating how dehydrated she felt all of a sudden. Was the room closing in on her? Or was that just her imagination? Why couldn't she tell? She just needed to figure out how she felt and say something about it to Zelda. That wasn't a hard thing to do. Lex was usually so in touch with her emotions. What made it so different this time around? It simply didn't make sense to her, but she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she absolutely hated it. 

Zelda nodded. "I had no choice but to tell her. I was hoping that I would be able to tell you first, but she had other plans. At the very least, I was able to explain it to you before we could press on with the fighting too much more," she said. Lex didn't understand how Zelda was able to remain so calm, but she envied it endlessly as Zelda continued to speak. "I'm not going to push you to spend time with me if that isn't what you want. This is a lot to take in all at once, especially given how chaotic everything has been as of late. You have every right to tell who you wish about this. I won't judge you for it in the slightest. That's what sisters do for each other, hm?"

The word 'sisters' hit like a punch to the stomach. Lex had been so sure that she was an only child throughout much of her life, and suddenly hearing from Zelda of all people that this wasn't true hurt her more than she expected. Zelda was a powerful general who had opposed her and the rest of the Clan Leaders along with the Draconic Superiors during the early stages of the fight on Daragon. Even after she switched sides, there was endless uncertainty regarding what to do with her given her past actions. Lex liked to believe that people could change, but she still struggled to find an answer for how she was meant to respond to Zelda's actions. 

"I'll leave you to the rest of your day if you need time to think," Zelda told Lex as she rose to her feet. "When you have answers, all you need to do is come and find me. I'll listen to anything that you have to say without hesitation. I trust your judgement regardless of what conclusion you come to. I won't pressure you to feel any specific way, and you can consider that a promise from the bottom of my heart. I'm simply wishing you the best from here on out."

Zelda walked out of the room soon afterwards, leaving Lex alone with her thoughts. Lex stared at the space where Zelda had been a few moments prior before sighing and allowing her head to fall forward into her hands. She didn't have an answer to something like this, and she hated that more than she could ever describe. In theory, it was supposed to be easy. Lex knew how she felt most of the time, so why did everything she had previously known fail her at the most critical moment?

Lex slid her hands down the sides of her face, trying to keep herself grounded despite the tempestuous chaos that was slowly swelling up at the core of her body. She was going to have to respond to Zelda sooner or later even if the other woman wasn't looking for her approval. Zelda was simply sharing information that she thought Lex deserved to be privy to, and yet, it had sent everything that Lex had ever known into such endless chaos that she didn't know how she was meant to recover. How could anybody recover from something like this?

Lex had heard from others previously that the Deadly Flame Clan consisted of many people, and that made it clear that she was going to find relatives of hers at some point or another, but this was something that she hadn't ever expected. Zelda was the last person who Lex would have expected to be like her, but at the same time, Lex knew that it made a bit too much sense. Zelda was so much stronger than the average mage, and it was what had allowed her to become such a powerful general during the war on Daragon. She was as renowned as she was because of her power, and that strength had come from both her training and inherent strength because of the Deadly Flame. 

She was going to have to tell the other Clan Leaders. That was simply a given as far as Lex was concerned. If anybody was going to be able to help Lex sort through her emotions, it would be the five of them. Besides, Lex knew that she would be able to trust them with something this important. Lex would likely be able to talk to the members of the Draconic Superior group that she had grown particularly close with during the war, such as Skye, Liathine, Cordell, and Diamond, but she wasn't sure about if she wanted the information to spread much farther than that. 

Then there was Tuila. Lex was personally going to have to ask Tuila why she hadn't told the truth sooner. Lex knew deep down that it was because Tuila was trying to protect her when the world was in chaos, but that still made her feel awful. She hadn't realized that Zelda had been watching her from afar ever since they met as allies, waiting for the right moment to explain the truth of their connection. In hindsight, it made sense, and it certainly explained why Zelda had been glued to her side during the previous fight. Zelda had finally been given the chance to protect her younger sister, and she couldn't allow that to slip out of her hands after the opportunity had eluded her for so long.

Lex let out a whine of agony as she pressed her hands against her eyes, only recoiling when she saw stars dance against the back of her eyelids. She was going to need some time alone to think about this. Lex only hoped that nobody was going to look for her for the foreseeable future. Lex had no idea when she was going to be feeling well enough to actually see others, but as far as she could tell, it was going to be a while. She hated this helpless feeling, but unfortunately, all she could do was wait it out. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rest in pieces Lex
> 
> -Digital

**Author's Note:**

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